More pessimistic New Year poetry from Ogden Nash

The American humourist and poet Ogden Nash had something to say about the New Year on more than one occasion, and none of it was very complimentary! 

His amusing little seasonal piece Good Riddance, But Now What? was featured in the New Year 2024 article. 

Good-bye, Old Year, You Oaf or Why Don’t They Pay The Bonus? is another pessimistic New Year poem.

Rather than quote it in full, I have selected some representative lines. This is how it starts:

“Many of the three hundred and sixty-five days of the year are followed by dreadful nights, but one night is far, oh yes, by far the worst,

And that, my friends, is the night of December the thirty-first.”

These are the final lines:

“Every new year is a direct descendant, isn’t it, of a long line of proven criminals?

And you can’t turn it into a philanthropist by welcoming it with cocktails and champagne any more successfully than with prayer books and hyminals.

Every new year is a country as barren as the old one, and it’s no use trying to forage it;

Every new year is incorrigible; then all I can say is for Heaven’s sakes, why go out of your way to incorrage it?”

Another edition of Ogden Nash's poems: 

Books versus real life in Conan Doyle's Magic Door

This is another article in the series about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's little volume of essays on books, reading and associated topics Through the Magic Door. 

This post was inspired by the following passage, which appears just after the invitation to enter the magic world of books:

“No matter what mood a man may be in, when once he has passed through the magic door he can summon the world’s greatest to sympathize with him in it. If he be thoughtful, here are the kings of thought. If he be dreamy, here are the masters of fancy. Or is it amusement that he lacks? He can signal to any one of the world’s great story-tellers, and out comes the dead man and holds him enthralled by the hour.

The dead are such good company that one may come to think too little of the living. It is a real and a pressing danger with many of us, that we should never find our own thoughts and our own souls, but be ever obsessed by the dead. Yet second-hand romance and second-hand emotion are surely better than the dull, soul-killing monotony which life brings to most of the human race. But best of all when the dead man’s wisdom and the dead man’s example give us guidance and strength and in the living of our own strenuous days.“

Conan Doyle makes some good points here; they are best dealt with individually.

Getting whatever you want whenever you want it
The first few lines above provide a good explanation of why so many people like to read. A library is like a menu for the mind; they can get on demand whatever 'food' they feel in the mood for. Too much choice can be a problem though! 

I have often asked myself what type of reading material I am in the mood for. Do I feel like reading something light and amusing? Do I want to be inspired, informed or entertained? Perhaps some familiar comfort food would be best – or maybe I should try something new for a change. Sometimes I read to lift my mood: I may select an uplifting book to counter-balance the effects of reading a very depressing one. 

Books are better than life
Conan Doyle is right when he says that dead people can be better company than the living.

What we get from books may indeed seem more appealing and rewarding than what we are getting from real life. This applies to both the people in our lives and the life that we are leading.

Miscellaneous memorable material from Dion Fortune's occult novels

Each article in the series inspired by Dion Fortune's five occult novels seemed like the last one at the time, but, even though the returns diminish, a further trawl always produces a little more material to comment on. 

This article contains a few more particularly striking expressions and propositions, many of which speak for themselves. 

Psychology, pain and energy vampires
The Winged Bull mentions a 'psychological car crash', and that the victim is in need of a human 'breakdown lorry'.

This is a very neat way of describing a major internal disaster. It is spot on: people do sometimes feel as though they have been hit by a truck, and they may well need some assistance to get going again. 

The crash victim is called Ursula. She is in a bad way because she has been in the power of an energy vampire. Dion Fortune comes up with some very good images here: Ursula is described as being like a run-down battery and a sucked-out orange, while her vampiric victimiser swells up like a bullfrog!

This cover picture by Bruce Pennington shows Ursula the psychological car crash victim and the breakdown lorry:

These very true words are from Moon Magic:

“...there are no anaesthetics in psychology.”

Dion Fortune got that one right. Some people will have no idea what she is talking about; they are the lucky ones. Others will know only too well how excruciatingly painful dealing with the inner world can be; they will have learned the hard way that there is no pain relief so their agony just has to be endured.

“There is no honour in politics”

A recent article features a statement from the Scottish writer George MacDonald to the effect that as no good person would go into politics, anyone who is elected to power will not be a decent human being. 

His words may be unwelcome and depressing, but there are many recent examples in both the UK and the US that support them.

Other people mentioned on here have said much the same thing.

This is from Benjamin Disraeli, who saw it all from the inside:

“There is no act of treachery or meanness of which a political party is not capable; for in politics there is no honour.“

Taylor Caldwell, who had something to say about the causes of major wars, also said this in her historical novel Captains and the Kings:

“...politics and moral ethics never mix. Politics and ethics are a contradiction in terms. An honest politician is either a hypocrite—or he is doomed.”

Although Captains and the Kings is set in the United States and the story starts in the 1850s, much of the material in this book has wider applications.

More memorable material from Dion Fortune's occult novels

This is yet another article in the series inspired by Dion Fortune's occult novels. It contains a few more of her thought-provoking propositions.

Three essential qualities
The Demon Lover contains what might be called a person specification for advanced occult work:

“Dr Latimer had brains and kindness, but no strength; the hard-faced man had brains and strength, but no kindness; the newcomer had all three, and Veronica knew by this that he was a far greater man in every way than either of the others was ever likely to be.” 

Each of these qualities needs to be developed to a far greater than average degree. Finding people who meet two of the requirements must be difficult enough; good luck with finding someone who meets all three! Such people may exist in fiction, but how many are to be found in real life? 

Balancing the qualities
Assuming that kindness includes mercy and that strength includes justice, this further extract from The Demon Lover is of interest because it reminds me of of a very similar statement in a very different novel:

“...although unbalanced mercy is but weakness, unbalanced justice is cruelty and oppression.”

When I first saw this, I immediately thought of some words from Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre that support the above proposition:

“Feeling without judgment is a washy draught indeed; but judgment untempered by feeling is too bitter and husky a morsel for human deglutition.”

Feeling that is not balanced with rationality may well be not much good to anyone on the receiving end, and judgement that is not balanced with compassion may indeed be too harsh for most people to digest.

A further scene of interest from a Dion Fortune occult novel

A key scene in Dion Fortune's occult novel Moon Magic inspired an article about communicating via metaphysical means. 

In this scene, Priestess of Isis Lilith Le Fay describes how she attracted the right person to her by sending out a call on the right wavelength.

In another significant passage in this novel. Lilith Le Fay describes how she looked for clues to the pattern and purpose of her occult work:

“...it suddenly occurred to me that there was a kind of pattern running through my slowly formulating work which I had not observed before. It is well known to those who deal with the hidden side of things that such patterns exist, they are, in fact, caused by the invisible forces with which we work, and when these have been got in hand and are being directed by a planning will, the pattern appears. I knew, therefore, that if I could discern the plan of the pattern, all would be clear. There is a central thread that runs through all these things; find that, and you have the clue. 

I know how to look for this thread — one seeks that which recurs and keeps on recurring. In the present instance there was one recurring factor, and one only...”

She is talking about unseen influences, the invisible forces that are at work in our lives! 

Dion Fortune wrote elsewhere about the part that the Unseen sometimes plays in certain people's  lives; here, she may be referring to a hidden hand that operates behind the scenes.

I find these words very interesting. They have a much wider application. Many people would benefit from performing a similar exercise, one in which they look back and try to identify and learn from important recurring factors in their lives.

Plans, patterns, threads and clues
This article is not the place to cover the exercise in depth, but in summary there are three steps to take: the first step involves looking for recurring factors, both good and bad, in key aspects of someone's life; the next step entails treating these factors as clues to a master plan and indications of what should or should not be done; finally, the practitioner might consider who or what might have designed and implemented the patterns and and laid the clues.

Some alarming words about wars from Taylor Caldwell

I have been noticing more and more occurrences of the alarming prediction that World War III is both inevitable and  imminent.

There are many conspiracy theories about the causes of major wars; they often involve power and money: 'cui bono' and all that.

These sinister theories may be new to some people, but they have been circulating for a very long time. There is nothing new in the observation that differing factions often unite in the face of a common enemy either. 

The author Taylor Caldwell, who has been mentioned in a few articles on here, said something in a book first published in 1952 that is very applicable to the current global political situation:

“You see,” went on the doctor warmly, “when a nation threatens another nation the people of the latter forget their factionalism, their local antagonisms, their political differences, their suspicions of each other, their religious hostilities, and band together as one unit. Leaders know that, and that is why so many of them whip up wars during periods of national crisis, or when the people become discontented and angry...

Attacking another nation, then, acts as a sort of catharsis, temporarily, on men’s fear of their immediate neighbors. This is the explanation of all wars, all racial and religious hatreds, all massacres, and all attempts at genocide.”

From The Devil's Advocate

The recent series of violent riots in the UK is an indication that all is not well here. The US economy is reported to be slowing down, with many job losses.

Are the people becoming increasingly discontented and angry? Are the US and the UK moving towards a time of national crisis?  

If so, are the leaders going to whip up a war or two? 

Benjamin Disraeli too had something to say on the subject of conflicts between nations.

Perhaps we should take his advice and hope for the best but prepare for the worst.

A very relevant quotation from the writer George MacDonald

The recent general election in the UK was held on July 4th, a day of great significance in the US; the impending presidential election in the US will be held on November 5th, a  a day of great significance in the UK.

Some of the people standing for and elected to office do not inspire much confidence. Is this really the best that the political parties can do? Why can't they come up with better people?

The Victorian author and poet George Macdonald, who has been mentioned in a few articles on here, said something that is very relevant to the current unsatisfactory situation: 

“It is not in the nature of politics that the best men should be elected. The best men do not want to govern their fellow men.”

He could well be right about this.

The reader's dilemma: so many books, so little time

The article about L. M. Montgomery's compulsion to read and write contains this quotation from one of her journals:

“I doubt if I shall ever have time to read the book again -- there are too many new ones coming out all the time which I want to read. Yet an old book has something for me which no new book can ever have -- for at every reading the memories and atmosphere of other readings come back and I am reading old years as well as an old book.”

For an avid reader, a 'book drunkard' as  L. M. Montgomery called herself, the dilemma of there not being enough hours in the day to do all the reading they would like to is a very real and major one. 

The 'so many books, so little time' dilemma does indeed often involve making a decision to select a familiar old friend rather than a fresh new book to read or vice versa; in other words, all reading is at the expense of other reading. 

I commented on L. M. Montgomery's thoughts about reading and the feelings of nostalgia that old books can invoke at the time. I have since come across another quotation about the advantages of old over new books, and this has inspired a few more words on the subject.

Comfort food for the mind
Elizabeth Goudge states that our favourite books can provide great comfort when we are going through difficult times in our lives.

A few comments about life from a Dion Fortune occult novel

The first article in the series inspired by Dion Fortune's occult novels contains quotations relevant to the topic of operating from a position of weakness versus operating from a position of strength.

This article features three memorable statements from The Sea Priestess about what Douglas Adams called Life, the Universe and Everything. They seem both very true and very depressing to me.

A striking and very true description of life
It was this statement that inspired this article:

“It seemed to me that life is an all-in wrestling match without a referee. It had fairly got me down.“

It seems like that to many people!

Life does indeed often feel like one long fight for survival, one long battle against hostile forces with no one to see fair play.

The problems and attacks keep coming; they are unrelenting and never-ending and there is often no respite.

There is no justice in the world; no one is minding the store, so people who behave badly towards others do indeed often get away with it.

No wonder people get depressed!

All this reminds me of something that Marvin the Paranoid Android says in Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:

“Life! Don't talk to me about life.”

If life gives with one hand it takes with the other
These quotations from The Sea Priestess suggest that there is a great price to be paid in return for a great advantage:

“It is said that the gods always make you pay the price for any great blessing, but in my case, having sent me a pretty unmitigated curse, they funded up handsomely in other directions.”

“Then I told her my idea that whereas the gods are always reputed to make mortals pay up for any great benefit bestowed, I, by virtue of my asthma, seemed to be running a kind of credit account with them. She agreed.”

The context of the speaker's remarks is not really relevant to this article; it is the proposition that great gifts come at a great price that is of interest here.

Get it in writing!

This article was inspired by a comment that I came across in one of Dion Fortune's occult novels.

The speaker, a man, decides to send a male colleague who will make a good impression to talk in person to a woman about property matters: 

“It is my experience that women take things in much better when they are told than when they are written to. As a matter of fact, being out of their depth when it comes to house property, they judge the man and not the scheme.”

From The Sea Priestess

This may at first sight seem rather patronising, not to mention just not true! However, the speaker does qualify what he says: he is not generalising about all women, just the ones he has been involved with in connection with his estate agency business.

The context of his remark is not relevant to this article; it is the underlying propositions that some people prefer to receive information in person and that the messenger is sometimes more important than the message that are of interest here.

While I much prefer to get information in writing and see the message as being more important than the messenger, I know from experience that some people do indeed want to be told rather than written to and often are more influenced by the teller than by the tale.

Passing on information in person
I suspect that many of the people who prefer to do everything in person are extroverts and/or feeling types! They just want company; they want human contact and personal attention so they look for pretexts to arrange a get-together.

Introverts may find it frustrating and annoying when such people want to meet rather than just exchange emails, however despite my personal preferences I can see that there is something to be said in favour of passing on information in person.

Did distress signals attract a predator?

Some posts on here contain material that supports the proposition that distress signals often attract predators. A particularly good example of this phenomenon can be found in the article that features a predator with a pram. 

It is advisable to be very wary of anyone who suddenly appears in our lives when we are in a distressed state.

The predators usually attack in person, but they sometimes sense the distress remotely.

This reminds me of yet another incident of interest; it happened many years ago. 

I received an email one evening from someone who was in a bad way. He was tormented by the feeling that he hadn't tried hard enough to persuade someone not to leave him. He was convinced that she would have stayed if he had only managed to get his feelings across to her and begged her desperately not to go.

I disagreed; I said that he was wrong to blame himself. I told him I knew from experience that once someone's mind is made up in such situations there is nothing that can be said or done to change it.

We exchanged a string of messages. I became more and more affected not only by the state that I sensed he was in and the messages that he was sending but also by the distressing memories from the past that I was digging up and giving as examples for his benefit.

Our conversation was suddenly interrupted by a new email message. It was from someone I didn't know who had heard on the grapevine about my freelance services and wanted to discuss the possibility of my doing some database work for their company.

All my warning bells went off! The abrupt arrival, uncanny timing and rather peremptory tone of the message gave me some bad feelings about the sender. I felt threatened; I sensed possible trouble ahead! 

A few words from a Celtic exorcist

The thought-provoking proposition that people of Celtic origin are particularly open to certain unseen influences was first mentioned in an article about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's novella The Parasite.

A list of writers of interest with Celtic connections followed, and there are references to this heritage in a few other articles.

The Reverend Dr. Donald Omand, a Scotsman and a Church of England exorcist, is another example of someone who attributes his psychic powers to his Celtic origin.

From his book Experiences of a Present Day Exorcist (1970):

“...the gift of ‘second sight’, so prevalent among people of Celtic origin...”

“Ferguson was a strange mixture of devil and saint, as is so often found in Celtic peoples.“

“Being called on so often to counter the machinations of Black Magicians, I have learned how they achieve their ends. If I did turn from Jekyll to Hyde, I should be more dangerous than most through the feyness which has been passed on to me by my Celtic forebears, I am afraid to think uncharitably of people, even of those who may wish to harm me, for I know what the result may be.”

It is lucky then for everyone he encountered that Dr. Omand always used his powers for good rather than evil!

He has some amazing stories to tell and much to say about topics such as witchcraft, ill-wishing and curses in his book:

A last look at cult expert Steve Hassan's Freedom of Mind

After producing a series of articles in which I highlight and comment on material of special interest from Steven Hassan's best-selling guidebooks Combating Cult Mind Control and Freedom of Mind, I thought that I had reached the end of the exercise. However, Freedom of Mind has inspired just one more post.

Steve Hassan's detailed advice about how families and friends can help cult members and cult leavers via his Strategic Interactive Approach (SIA) is very useful indeed. It is best to go straight to the source for his wise words on building teams, planning interventions, role playing, winning the trust of the cult member, asking key questions and other associated exercises and procedures; here I just want to feature a few miscellaneous extracts of particular interest, some of which have a wider application.

Indirectly asking for help
Steve Hassan describes a technique used by clever cult members to drop subtle hints to their families:

“I have had several families contact me after their cult son or daughter told them not to get a professional counselor to get them out. Before the cult member made that remark, the families had not realized that they could contact someone like me for help.”

This approach could be used in other situations - and I don't mean just by people who say, “It's my birthday tomorrow, but please don't tell anyone and don't get me anything!”

Echoes of Dion Fortune
A recent article contains this quotation from a Dion Fortune occult novel:

“You don’t know what you do want, but you do know what you don’t want.

Steve Hassan says something similar:

“It is useful, for instance, to be able to recognize and articulate the difference between what you do not want (a mediocre job) and knowing what you do want (a fulfilling career).”

It is indeed very useful to bring goals, preferences and requirements out into the open and nail them down. 

Steve Hassan calls this exercise 'assertive motivation'. It can help to remove blocks, increase understanding and get someone going in the right direction.

Another scene of interest from a Dion Fortune occult novel

As mentioned in the article inspired by The Demon Lover, there are scenes in Dion Fortune's occult novels that have particular relevance to some of the topics on here. 

This post features another of these scenes, this time from Moon Magic (1956). It presents the idea that people with certain metaphysical powers and the right training and intention can use occult methods to draw others to them for mutual benefit.

Lilith Le Fay calls out for a colleague
Moon Magic contains much occult-related material that people who live entirely in the three-dimensional universe would dismiss as ridiculous rubbish, purple prose, or, as Richard Hannay describes a speech he makes in John Buchan's Greenmantle, confounded nonsense!

I skip through many of the occult scenes myself, but find this novel worth reading for the commentary-inspiring material that it contains.  

Lilith Le Fay is one of the main characters. She is a priestess of Isis and a practitioner of ceremonial magic. 

She needs to find someone to work with her when she performs the rituals. She advertises the job vacancy in a very unusual way:

“There was nothing for me to do but watch and wait. I could not go and find the people I wanted; I had to wait for them to find me. This I knew they would do because I was sounding the call of Isis, vibrating it on the Inner Planes as a wireless operator sounds his key-call. Those who were on my wave-length would soon be picking it up, and then curious combinations of circumstances would do the rest. They would come from the ends of the earth like homing pigeons, picking up the call subconsciously and not knowing what it was that drew them.“

The procedure may seem preposterous and the practitioner delusional, but it works! Lilith Le Fay attracts the right man for the job by broadcasting on the right wavelength: she puts out the call, and a man who has the qualities that she requires eventually appears in her life.

The shadow side of the Moon Magic scene
Most people will immediately dismiss the suggestion that some people can communicate via other dimensions as very unlikely indeed - or even crazy. However, when people who are interested in unseen influences and have had certain unusual experiences are first introduced to this idea, they find that it makes sense and could explain a lot. 

Further consideration by such people may cause them to realise that, assuming it is correct, this proposition has some alarming implications; they may rightly suspect that the forces involved do not always work for the benefit of the people using or affected by them. 

In particular, there is a negative or shadow side to the calling phenomenon. 

A scene of special interest from a Dion Fortune occult novel

There are a few scenes in Dion Fortune's occult novels that have particular relevance to some of the material on here. 

These scenes contain familiar elements; they provide supporting evidence for some key theories about certain metaphysical influences and phenomena; they enable people to put similar experiences into a wider context and learn some useful lessons.

This post features one of these scenes. It caught my attention when I was skimming through Dion Fortune's novel The Demon Lover (1927). It describes the negative effect that a girl who is being controlled by an evil entity has on someone she encounters.

Bad energy repels the doctor
A mediumistic young girl called Veronica Mainwaring is a major character in The Demon Lover. While she is harmless in herself, everything changes when she comes under the hypnotic influence of a black magician called Justin Lucas.

After his death, he uses her to help him drain children of their vital energy so that he can materialise; some of the children die.

Possessed by the spirit of Lucas, a huge mastiff goes crazy and kills the doctor's son; this man had hoped to marry Veronica, so Lucas saw him as a rival.

Veronica is taking her morning walk when the doctor drives past in his dog cart:

“He gave her one glance, and shaking the reins, drove swiftly past without any other sign of recognition than was conveyed by that look of hate and repulsion.”

The doctor knows nothing but senses everything:

“...there was something about the girl which did not fall within the laws of his three-dimensional universe. What it was, he could not define, even to himself, but he hated and dreaded her as children and dogs hate and fear, without reason assigned, yet with an unerring instinct.“

The doctor senses that Veronica is overshadowed by Lucas's malign influence, he is repelled by the negative energy around her, and his intuition rightly tells him that she was somehow involved in his son's death. No wonder that he hates and fears and hurries away from her. 

Veronica behaves in a similar way towards the huge killer dog that she has inherited from Lucas. She is a dog lover and at first she quite likes the friendly old thing, but this changes after he comes under the evil influence of the dead Lucas:

“...to Veronica...the whole ‘feel’ of dog, kennel, and surroundings was so repellent that she drew hastily back and hurried away from the yard and its sinister occupant.”

Three cult-related exercises with a wider application

Steven Hassan's books Combating Cult Mind Control and Freedom of Mind contain much good advice about supporting and rehabilitating people who have escaped from destructive cults. People who want to help cult leavers and cult leavers who want to help themselves will find these books very useful.

I have mentioned some of Steve Hassan's suggestions in previous articles inspired by his books. Some of the techniques and practices that he promotes have a wider application: for example, people who have escaped from dysfunctional families - some of which can be very cultlike - and are trying to process the past and rehabilitate themselves may also find them worth trying. 

This article features and expands on three pieces of advice that are best followed in sequence: tell the story, rework the story and salvage as much as possible from the time spent in captivity. 

1) Telling the story
Steve Hassan says that cult leavers are stronger for being able to share their personal stories. He also says that the written word is a powerful medium of communication, and that writing the entire story down helps the writer to process and gain a better perspective on the experiences.

This is all very true, but the story-telling exercise may be very time consuming and it may be difficult to know where to start. 

This applies even more to people who are trying to come to terms with and move on from many years of neglect and ill-treatment at the hands of their families. People who are both cult leavers and members of dysfunctional families will have a lot of material to process.

A spreadsheet for topics and timelines provides a good structure and framework for the narrative, and using it to record key elements in someone's life may save time in the long run.

There are so many variables and different stories to tell that it is impossible to design a 'one size fits all' template. 

A good way to get the ball rolling is to set up column headings and sub-headings for basic, useful and important information. It is advisable to start with key items such as people, addresses, dates and milestones. Lists of elements such as food and clothes, schools and jobs, toys and pets, books and music, entertainment, outings and travel will help to fill out the picture of the past. Other categories could include accidents, illnesses and painful incidents such as a family breakup. Political events and news items that made a big impression may also be worth recording.

It is best to concentrate on one aspect at a time and follow it through in sequence over the years of dependency and captivity.

More quotations from Dion Fortune's occult novels

I have found Dion Fortune's occult novels worth reading more for the occasional neat summaries and thought-provoking, commentary-inspiring remarks than for the plots and people and elements such as robes and rituals, magic and mystery, temples and ceremonies and the Old Gods. 

The quotations in this article come from The Goat-foot God (1936), in which there are descriptions of both occult and everyday activities. The contrast can be very amusing: people invoke the god Pan and fry sausages for example!

Some spot-on comments 

“An empty mind's as uncomfortable as an empty stomach.”

Some people's unsatisfied hunger for knowledge, for food for their minds, does indeed make them very unhappy. The article about the 'eat or buy books' dilemma is relevant here.

“You don’t know what you do want, but you do know what you don’t want.”

This is exactly how many dissatisfied people feel, and not just when  they have not got the right people to interact or share their lives with: it could apply to someone who is trying to find suitable work or the right place to live for example. They don't know what they want because they have never seen or experienced it, but they do know that whatever is currently available to them is not what they want.

The Goat-foot God describes how it feels when someone starts to get an idea of what it is that they have been wanting all this time:

“Doing your best to carry on on wrong lines till you feel you will burst, and then suddenly getting the clue that opens everything out to you.“

I know from experience how liberating it is when the answer finally comes and an escape route from a life that is all wrong opens up: “That's it! That's what I'll do! That's what I want!”  

A few quotations from Dion Fortune's occult novels

In addition to her non-fiction books, the occultist Dion Fortune wrote five novels. While the stories themselves don't inspire commentary, some of the expressions and observations in these novels really stand out and are worth highlighting. 

This article contains a few propositions that particularly resonated when I first came across them.

Beggars can't be choosers

“...it does not do to be angry with life unless one has private means...”

From The Winged Bull (1935)

These wise words may be painful to read and difficult to accept, but they are very true. This may be a bitter pill to swallow, but the difference between operating from a position of weakness and operating from a position of strength is often a matter of financial independence. 

Some people just can't afford to have any feelings or views; they would make things worse for themselves and lose what little they have by challenging someone or something. 

People who have private means, money that is not dependent on the employment market or the whims of other people, are very fortunate: they don't need to put up with the hardships, ill-treatment and injustices that wage slaves and penniless people are forced to endure. 

They can afford to take a stand and fight for their cause.

Independence of mind is another great advantage

“People who value public opinion are at a very great disadvantage in dealing with people who don't.”

From The Sea Priestess (1938)

This proposition complements the one above.  It can also apply to people who overvalue the opinions of the people around them.

People who value public opinion can indeed be greatly handicapped when both dealing and competing with people who don't. 

People pleasers and others who care very much what people in general think of them are operating from a position of weakness. They may feel that they can't afford to get angry, say what they really think or do what they really want to do. Fear of negative reactions and manipulations such as criticism, disapproval, reproaches and rejection may hold them back and keep them in their place while people who don't care what others think of them forge ahead. 

People who are indifferent to public opinion operate from a position of strength. They have independent means – on the inside. They can afford to be straight with other people. They have the courage of their convictions; they take their own path through life, going where the other lot can't follow. 

Anyone who has both financial and psychological independence is very fortunate indeed.

“Intelligent people don't join cults”

Steven Hassan's informative and thought-provoking book Combating Cult Mind Control, his best-selling 'Guide to Protection, Rescue, and Recovery from Destructive Cults', has inspired a series of posts. The final article,  A few points about helping cult leavers, mentions his books Releasing the Bonds and Freedom of Mind as additional resources for people seeking information about cults and how to get members out of them. 

These books, which were published after Combating Cult Mind Control, appeared from their online descriptions to be more of the same, with much repetition of key points, advice and useful information and more case histories; I assumed that I wouldn't find anything that I would want to comment on in them. 

I have since read through Freedom of Mind: Helping Loved Ones Leave Controlling People, Cults, and Beliefs, which is a revised and updated version of Releasing the Bonds, and I came across a small amount of material that I want to highlight.

This article features more of Steve Hassan's wise words on the subject of people who join cults. 

A misconception about intelligence
Freedom of Mind lists some common cult-related misconceptions and errant beliefs held by many people, including the idea that intelligent people do not join cults. 

While this conviction may have come from personal experience - it may be the result of having encountered people from the lower levels of certain religious cults for example – it definitely does not apply in all cases. As Steve Hassan tells us, intelligent people do join cults:

“Many people have a hard time believing that bright, talented people— often educated, and from good homes-—could fall under the control of a cult. They fail to realize that cults intentionally recruit smart people who will work tirelessly for the cause. Many of the former cult members I have met are exceptionally bright and well educated. They have active imaginations and creative minds. They have a capacity to focus their attention and concentrate. Most are idealistic and socially conscious. They want to make a positive contribution to the world.”

All this makes sense. Such people may also be recruited because they are a good advertisement for the cause and may attract others of their kind into the cult.

Two more victims of 'psychological black magic'

The article about two very convenient 'accidents' describes how a work colleague escaped from some difficult situations at someone else's expense. 

I have remembered another example of someone I worked with causing suffering to others by using illegitimate methods to deal with a work-related problem. 

The victim of the first colleague was a little girl; on the second occasion two young men were involved. These men became ill rather than having accidents and they were deliberately targeted rather than indirectly affected, but once again the case involved a perpetrator who failed to negotiate with people in the normal manner and the phenomenon that I think of as psychological black magic.

The background to the story
The events described here happened some years after the first case, and they took place in a different company. 

They involved a colleague I shall call Ms X. I was very wary of her right from the start, and the trouble that she subsequently caused, of which this story is just a small example, showed that my instincts were correct.

Ms X was a senior accountant. In addition to her main job, she did the accounts for another organisation or two on a voluntary basis in her spare time – I think it was for the Brownies and/or her local church. 

The voluntary work started to feel like an imposition. Rather than just tell the people concerned that it was getting too much for her, Ms X very typically tried to manipulate some fellow employees into taking her place.

The first victim
Ms X got one of the more junior accountants to take on some of her voluntary work; he then became very ill and took extended medical leave. By the time he returned, she had left the company.

The second victim
The second man was a colleague of the first. He resisted the pressure to take over some of the voluntary accounts work; he then became very depressed. He left the company. His new job didn't work out, and he eventually returned to his old position.  By this time, Ms X had left the company.