People Who Play God: How Ultra-Authorities Enslave the Hearts, Minds and Souls of Their Victims

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Highly Recommended

People Who Play God: How Ultra-Authorities Enslave the Hearts, Minds and Souls of Their Victims
Beth Peterson
Manufacturer: Xlibris Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
Social Psychology & Interactions | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 141341642X

Book Description

When an authority figure moves into desiring total control and obedience, when they are interested in taking over another person's true personality and replacing it with a persona of their own devising, than that authority has moved into the realm of ultra-authority. People Who Play God exposes the underlying dynamics of ultra-authority in everyday language and through four different sections.

In Part One, the masks and foundations of ultra-authority are brought to light. Ultra-authority has existed for thousands of years. Most recently, people have heard about ultra-authority in the forms of cults and sects, battering relationships and domestic violence, and totalitarian governments and organizations. The terms often associated with it have been `brainwashing', `mind control', and `thought reform'.

In Part Two, the Integrated Model of Ultra-Authority is explained. Ultra-authority is the result of a vastly complex network of interlinking factors. Never before has a researcher or author broken apart every component to reveal the depths and breadth of ultra-authoritarian dynamics. Ms Peterson's breakthrough Integrated Model explores those factors as no one else has done before, bringing to light the part each factor plays in the development and maintenance of this highly destructive type of relationship. The Integrated Model demonstrates the

*Toeholds: the vulnerabilities within ourselves

*Techniques: the manipulative tools used by ultra-authorities, and

*Time: how these act together to draw in an ultra-authority's victim.

People Who Play God not only develops the theory, however. In Part Three, it takes the reader on an inside journey through four real-world examples of ultra-authority. These case studies give a compelling and frightening view of the scope ultra-authority can play. They are: the one-on-one battering relationship of Mickey and Francine Hughes; the mystic cult of Charles Manson; the religious-political cult of Jim Jones; and the totalitarian regime of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich.

In Part Four, Ms Peterson presents the personality styles of ultra-authorities and introduces her Model of Ultra-Authoritarian Development. This second model details the stages which a person moves through as they themselves become an ultra-authority. There are also chapters on recovery for those who have been in a relationship with an ultra-authority, and prevention issues to help protect those who are not currently involved with one.

This book is not only a definite `must-read', it is also a `must-share'. For yourself and those you love, nothing is more important than learning to recognize and protect yourself from the People Who Play God.

Customer Reviews:

Highly Recommended.......2004-09-15

I feel this book is a must read for anyone who has encountered an ultra -authority
Last year I lived in a small Korean town that had many followers of an ultra-authority.
My flatmate, friends, students and work colleagues were members.

I found Beth's book particularly useful because it examined in great detail the ways ultra-authority groups take over a person's life.

Reading the account of tactics of Jim Jones brought back some memories of my own that I had almost forgotten. Seemingly innocent events that could well have led to the group getting a toe hold on me. Presents, compliments and invitations given...all nice stuff, until you realize the people offering are followers of a man who claims to be God, praises Hitler, is wanted by Interpol charged with rape, and understands that his followers may wish to "die early" in order to claim their "heavenly reward".
The Global Association of Culture & Peace (GACP), do a google search, you'll probably find a branch at a university near you.

I wish I had read this book years ago. I would have realized in seconds instead of months that my roomate's Church was really no such thing. I could have saved her lots of stress and grief. I guess with books like these, you don't think of reading them until you notice something wrong. It's not the kind of book you read at school, but it should be.
I would like to personally thank Beth for providing me with much deeper insights into how ultra-authorities operate and flourish. And more importantly, information that I can use to help some good friends return to a life that is their own.
Beth should really be applauded for her intelligence, compassion and commitment.

I also found the examination of Hitler fascinating. I'd love for Beth to one day examine Kim Jung Il, North Korea's Dear Leader.

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Collective Soul

Manufacturer: Warner Bros Pubns
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0897249321

Book Description

Includes: December * Gel * Where the River Flows * Collection of Goods * Reunion * Simple * Untitled * The World I Know * Smashing Young Man * She Gathers Rain * Bleed * Reunion.

Journey through Womanhood: Meditations from Our Collective Soul

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Journey Through Womanhood

Journey through Womanhood: Meditations from Our Collective Soul
Ph. D., Tian Dayton
Manufacturer: Hazelden
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Substance Abuse | Recovery | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Motivational | Self-Help | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Personal Transformation | Self-Help | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Developmental Psychology | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

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Meditations | Spirituality | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1568388829

Book Description

Women cultivate a sense of self through relationships, says Tian Dayton. And women nurture their soul through different roles embraced in life. In her beautifully rendered book of daily meditations, Dr. Dayton explores women's roles and relationships through eight distinct archetypes of womanhood drawn from history and culture: The Virgin, The Huntress, The Warrior, The Lover, The Wife, The Mother, The Martyr, and The Wise Woman. Each icon of femininity offers rich insight into universal experiences and truths for women, gently challenging, affirming, and empowering readers.

Features:

meditations and quotations from women offer insight and encouragement
format provides daily reminder of commitment to personal growth
a thoughtful gift for a friend, loved one, or co-worker

Tian Dayton, Ph.D.., is a clinical psychologist, acclaimed author, and nationally recognized expert in the fields of psychodrama and addictions. She has been featured on National Public Radio, the American Health Network, and numerous television talk shows, including the Mantel Williams Show, Ricki Lake, and Geralda. She lives in New York.

Customer Reviews:

Journey Through Womanhood.......2006-03-03

I absolutely love this book. It doesn't matter what page I open to, there is always something personally pertinent and thought provoking. What a fantastic, spiritual guidebook this is!

Reading Faces: Window to the Soul? (New Directions in Social Psychology)

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Good Social Psychology Reader
I would have rather skimmed though it at Borders instead
A inside journey to face perception

Reading Faces: Window to the Soul? (New Directions in Social Psychology)
Leslie A. Zebrowitz
Manufacturer: Westview Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

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All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
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ASIN: 0813327474

Customer Reviews:

Good Social Psychology Reader.......2007-06-03

I borrowed this book from a friend who is a psychology major and couldn't put it down. I am now getting a copy for myself to add to my library for personal reference. I find this text interesting and valuable because it is a survey of how we as human beings tend to make assumptions about people based on their facial features that are often very prejudicial and most often totally inaccurate at that. This is a scientific study of what prejudices we carry, and assumptions we make about others, based on such unreasonable criteria of facial features. Also, facial reading is scientifically proven to be a totally inaccurate basis for making any valid assumptions about a person's character. If you want a book on how to "read" people by their faces this is not the book for you. In fact, this book is the very opposite in that it clearly shows that there is absolutely nothing significant, other than perhaps just a person's basic current emotional states (happy, sad, angry, etc...) that can be gleaned from a person's facial features. We need more books like this that study our irrational behavior, that we all seem to engage in to some extent, so that maybe we can learn to judge people by who they really are rather than what they look like. The entire concept of being able to know much of anything about anyone from their facial features is tantamount to being able to know who someone is from their skin color. It just does not work and is not scientifically sound to judge others on such an arbitrary basis and this book examines that very well.

I would have rather skimmed though it at Borders instead.......2004-09-01

Very poorly and inconsitently written book. It seems that the author just couldn't make up her mind on whether she wants it to write it as an academic paper, a "how to" book you might see on a shelf at Kinko's, or a coffee-table book.
It does offer some very insightful ideas, but they are so broken up in chapters that don't flow with each other, that can't keep up the interest of the reader.
Also, I would have changed the title to "observations on the effects of facial configurations in the everyday society"

A inside journey to face perception.......2002-02-26

This was one of the books that changed the way I see people around me.
In a strictly scientific analysis, Zebrowitz explores the tendency to judge people by the way they look. Why? Can we trust it?
Almost all book is devoted to this first question - why we do it? And explains why we find some faces more atractive than others, the sex-appealing face cues, the main parts of the face that we look at and if they have some link to the way people are (their behaviour and personality).
The final chapter concludes that there is no scientific evidence that we can link the facial cues to one's personality. However the interesting thing of the book is the scientific facts and studies that you get to know before you come to the conclusion.

Book Description

The Soul Grows in Darkness recounts a profoundly challenging life. Born nearly deaf, Loren lives in a rat-infested Chicago ghetto where he contends with poverty, family conflict, prejudice, drugs, and terrifying violence. Barely surviving this murky urban landscape, his struggles initiate a lifelong search for God and truth.

Answers to his insatiable curiosity about life, death, and war are rare, but mysterious dreams and inner dialogues pose probing questions that guide his journey. He wonders whether his memories and dreams are only illusory. In adulthood, he turns to psychoanalysis to redeem his dark past and find meaning in his dreams. As a result, he becomes an analyst himself.

Are memories, dreams, and the promptings of the unconscious only opiates of minds desperately coping with a hopelessly disordered world? Or, however unreliable, do they contain one's truth?

The Soul Grows in Darkness is a hopeful and poignant search for self-understanding, love, and God. Its conclusion is astonishing.

"Poignant, funny, tragic, and uplifting, Loren Pedersen's new book will be many things to many readers: compelling true-life story, inspirational and cautionary tale, psychological self-help manual, and a chronicle of the second half of the tumultuous twentieth century. Readers will be immensely entertained by the vivid story here of Dr. Pedersen's life, through which they will discover illumination of their own."

Mark Spencer

Author of the novels Love and Reruns in Adams County and The Weary Motel.

Winner of The Faulkner Society Faulkner Award for Fiction, and of the Omaha Prize for the Novel

Download Description

Are memories, dreams, and the promptings of the unconscious only opiates of minds desperately coping with a hopelessly disordered world? Or, however unreliable, do they contain one

Customer Reviews:

Amazing life, compelling story.......2005-08-28

An amazing life, a compelling story.
The author skillfully reveals a life of innocence, desperation, anger, determination, hope, and eventual transformation. Dr. Pedersen tells his story with passion, insight, and wry humor; we feel his triumphs and tragedies.
I enjoyed it very much, and found it difficult to put down. This just has to be made into a movie!

Absorbing, page turner, inspirational, life changing!.......2005-02-26

The Soul Grows in Darkness is the third of Loren Pedersen's
books I've read. His first two were important contributions to
understanding men's psychology: Dark Hearts, the Unconscious
Forces that Shape Men's Lives, and Sixteen Men: Understanding
Masculine Personality Types. I loved them both. Reading the
Soul Grows in Darkness helps me comprehend why the other two
books were so accurate, insightful, and useful...Loren "walks
his talk"...he learned this stuff from life experience, and deep self-reflection.
The Soul Grows In Darkness could easily be made into a movie. It has drama, excitement, and an engaging, believeable protagonist.
Its a definite page turner. Since I have ADD its often hard for me to stay focused while reading. Despite the hundreds of
partially read books in my house, this book held my attention
fully; I couldn't put it down. I read The Soul Grows in Darkness overnight.
The Soul Grows in Darkness works on many levels. Even on the most superficial level, the story impacts because you see how our hero, Loren, starts from Chicago's version of "Hell's Kitchen"..a rat-infested walk-up, with a drunken step-father, cold-fish mother, and hoodlum older brothers to becoming a Jungian analyst, gifted stained-glass artist, caring father,
author, and activist. Pedersen was no "goody-two-shoes" either; it was "touch and go" for quite some time.
The book takes you through the struggles he faced as he tried to find himself in an environment where "dark forces" lurk on every corner, including the recessess of his own brilliant
mind. I compare its emotional and spiritual impact to one of
my favorite books, Man's Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl.
Frankl was also a therapist who overcame horrendous obstacles: in
Frankl's case, the holocaust. Both Pedersen and Frankl find meaning in suffering, and emerge from extreme and painful circumstances, not with bitterness, but more loving than anyone
might imagine they could ever be! Their journeys are similarly
heroic and profound.
There are many touching scenes. For example, the description
of his encounter with Johnny Mathis is pure magic. Many times
I laughed out loud, and several times I cried. Like me, you will be positively haunted, and shifted, and moved when you read this remarkable and uplifting story.
Similar to Forest Gump, Pedersen seemed to have a knack for being in a front row seat for many fascinating aspects of American life. His experience spans being a gang leader, to a demonstrator at the 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention, being asked to spy for the FBI while living in Berkeley during the
Viet Nam war, seeing the Dalai Lama, and a few autopsies, to
name a few!
This coming-of-age, (and developing-of-wholeness) book
also carries the reader through Loren's many spiritual trials
including brutal encounters with religious dogmatists, and
tragic, heartbreaking losses that would have put weaker souls
in straight-jackets. Pedersen's journey out of despair inspires
and teaches. The reader is carried along the twists and turns, easily identifying with Loren's struggle and brought to a dazzling new shore where it's finally safe to love oneself.
Perdesen's writing style is clean, clear, and humble. It rings true with every word. He has taken the best and worst
experiences of his fascinating life and connected the dots in a meaningful manner, producing a map that will give even the most desperate person hope.
This book is a natural classic. It will takes its place
beside The Catcher in the Rye and the Prophet.
Samuel Paterson said, "Books, like friends, should be few and well-chosen." The Soul Grows in Darkness doubly applies. Read this book...and you will have found a new friend. Quite
possibly you will also find a lifeline to move your own soul out of darkness!

The Soul's Economy: Market Society and Selfhood in American Thought, 1820-1920

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The Soul's Economy: Market Society and Selfhood in American Thought, 1820-1920
Jeffrey Sklansky
Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Economic History | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Theory | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Social Psychology & Interactions | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

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ASIN: 0807853984
Release Date: 2001-12-09

Book Description

Tracing a seismic shift in American social thought, Jeffrey Sklansky offers a new synthesis of the intellectual transformation entailed in the rise of industrial capitalism.

For a century after Independence, the dominant American understanding of selfhood and society came from the tradition of political economy, which defined freedom and equality in terms of ownership of the means of self-employment. However, the gradual demise of the household economy rendered proprietary independence an increasingly embattled ideal. Large landowners and industrialists claimed the right to rule as a privilege of their growing monopoly over productive resources, while dispossessed farmers and workers charged that a propertyless populace was incompatible with true liberty and democracy.

Amid the widening class divide, nineteenth-century social theorists devised a new science of American society that came to be called "social psychology." The change Sklansky charts begins among Romantic writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Margaret Fuller, continues through the polemics of political economists such as Henry George and William Graham Sumner, and culminates with the pioneers of modern American psychology and sociology such as William James and Charles Horton Cooley. Together, these writers reconceived freedom in terms of psychic self-expression instead of economic self-interest, and they redefined democracy in terms of cultural kinship rather than social compact.

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A twenty-first century perspective on The Souls of Black Fol

Saving the Race: Conversations on Du Bois from a Collective Memoir of Souls
Rebecca Carroll
Manufacturer: Harlem Moon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

African-American & Black | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
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General | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
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America | Race Relations | Sociology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Race Relations | Sociology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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Uncle Tom or New Negro?: African Americans Reflect on Booker T. Washington and UP FROM SLAVERY 100 Years Later

ASIN: 0767916190
Release Date: 2004-06-08

Book Description

W.E.B. Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folk is one of the most influential books ever published in this country. In it, Du Bois wrote that “the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line,” a prophecy that is as fresh and poignant today as when it first appeared in print in 1903. Now, one hundred years after The Souls of Black Folk was first published, Saving the Race reexamines the legacy of Du Bois and his “color line” prophecy from a modern viewpoint. The author, Rebecca Carroll, a biracial woman who was reared by white parents, not only provides her own personal perspective, but she invites eighteen well-known African Americans to share their ideas and opinions about what Du Bois's classic text means today.

Lalita Tademy, author

Stanley Crouch, cultural critic, novelist

A’Lelia Bundles, great-great-granddaughter of Madame C.J. Walker, author

David Graham Du Bois, stepson of W.E.B. Du Bois, writer, teacher, activist

Touré, novelist, contributing writer for Rolling Stone magazine

Julian Bond, chairman of the board, NAACP

Thelma Golden, chief curator and deputy director for exhibitions and programs at the Studio Museum of Harlem

Kathleen Cleaver, former communications secretary of the Black Panther party

Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., civil rights leader and lawyer

Cory Booker, former New Jersey councilman, mayoral candidate, activist

Jewell Jackson McCabe, founder and president of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women

Derrick Bell, professor of law, New York University

Elizabeth Alexander, poet and writer

Clarence Major, author, poet, artist

Terence Blanchard, horn player, film composer

Reverend Dr. James Forbes, senior minister of Riverside Church, New York

Patricia Smith, poet

LeAlan Jones, author

The result is an insightful and illuminating collection of interviews both provocative and inspiring. Saving the Race paints a fascinating, complicated, and colorful portrait about the “souls of black folk” in twenty-first century America.

Customer Reviews:

A twenty-first century perspective on The Souls of Black Fol.......2004-09-07

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois is perhaps one of the most influential African-Americans in history. Before there was a Martin Luther King, Jr. or Malcolm X, Du Bois was a voice and conscience of a people. An intellectual, scholar and activist, Du Bois' fight for equality spanned from the era of Reconstruction to the Civil Rights Movement. His philosophy and insight into the plight of African-Americans still reigns true and valuable today. In SAVING THE RACE: CONVERSATIONS ON DU BOIS FROM A COLLECTIVE MEMOIR OF SOULS author Rebecca Carroll gathers eighteen well-known and influential African-Americans such as: Julian Bond, A'Leila Bundles, Lalita Tademy, Toure, and Jewell Jackson McCabe to discuss their perspective on Du Bois and his most famous and studied work The Souls of Black Folk.
In candid essays, each of the eighteen people, whose accomplishments range from writer to politicians, discuss their thoughts on Du Bois's work, ideology and accomplishments. They revisit issues raised in The Souls of Black Folk such as race, classism, injustices and hope. Each person reveals how the concerns raised by Du Bois nearly a century ago are still relevant today to African-Americans as a community and within their own personal lives. Rebecca Carroll also peppers the book with her personal struggles of coming to terms with being Black in America, for she was a bi-racial child raised by a White family in rural New Hampshire. At times isolated and unsure of her identity, Du Bois was one of Carroll's first and most influential personal testament to the trials and tribulations of African-Americans.

I thoroughly enjoyed the testimony by the many well known African-Americans. Looking at The Souls of Black Folks from a modern perspective was refreshing and inspiring. The essays were revealing and thought provoking. Although the old adage "The more things change the more they stay the same," reigns true in many instances, the accomplishments, hope, dignity and pride that African-Americans have managed to hang on to in the face of enormous obstacles is nothing short of a miracle.

Reviewed by L. Raven James
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

The Shadow in America: Reclaiming the Soul of a Nation

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The Shadow in America: Reclaiming the Soul of a Nation

Manufacturer: Nataraj Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Self-Help | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Developmental Psychology | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

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General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Meeting the Shadow (New Consciousness Reader)

ASIN: 1882591178

Product Description

The compelling message in The Shadow in America is that we stand on the brink of social change as optimistic as at any time in our history. Jeremiah Abrams takes us the next step beyond his highly successful Meeting the Shadow by providing us with firm ground upon which to realize the dream beneath our national shadow, a dream which has been struggling to be born for more than two hundred years. The writers in this collection literally strip away the darkness that hides our country's soul. They address how our national shadow affects us individually and collectively -- in love, relationships, family life, sexuality, politics, economics, religion, race relations, and addictions -- and how each of us can realize the dark powers at work in the American psyche, and in so doing, transform our lives.

Collective Soul: Dosage: Authentic Guitar-Tab Edition

Average customer rating:

almost

Collective Soul: Dosage: Authentic Guitar-Tab Edition

Manufacturer: Warner Bros Pubns
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0769279554

Customer Reviews:

almost.......2002-11-24

the transcriptions are very accurate, however, crucial string arrangements are left out of the songs. for example, the strings section in the song 'needs,' though not that hard to figure out given the tonalities, are not tabbed out like they were in the tablature book for collective soul's self-titled album. aside from this lack, though, this is a good place to start for the beginning to intermediate guitarist since the songs here require many basic rock techniques that are easily built upon and will certainly show up in one's later rock repetoire.

Keys to the Japanese Heart and Soul (Kodansha Bilingual Books)

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Keys to the Japanese Heart and Soul (Kodansha Bilingual Books)
Japan Illustrated Encyclopedia
Manufacturer: Kodansha Europe
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

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Antiques & Collectibles | Encyclopedias | Reference | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 4770020821

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