How to help those in the message
So how do we help those that are still in the message?
The psychological background
- Related articles: Cognitive Dissonance
People who are still in the message have a hard time even listening to explanations of why the message is false. This is because of "cognitive dissonance" used to describe the mental discomfort that results from holding two conflicting beliefs (the message is God's word / the message is false). This conflict causes feelings of unease, discomfort, frustration, nausea, dread, guilt, anger, anxiety, and other negative feelings.
In fact, when you offer someone in the message undeniable proof that the message is false, they will generally believe the message more intensely and fanatically then they did previously. This is a direct result of cognitive dissonance.
You need to speak to the elephant
The conventional wisdom in psychology is that the brain has two independent systems at work at all times. First, there’s what we called the emotional side. It’s the part of you that is instinctive, that feels pain and pleasure. Second, there’s the rational side, also known as the reflective or conscious system. It’s the part of you that deliberates and analyzes and looks into the future.[1]
Jonathan Haidt describes this in his book, The Happiness Hypothesis, as the Elephant (emotional self) and the Rider (rational self). Like a rider on the back of an elephant, the conscious, reasoning part of the mind has only limited control of what the elephant does. Reason and emotion must both work together to create intelligent behavior, but emotion (a major part of the elephant) does most of the work. The elephant includes the gut feelings, visceral reactions, emotions, and intuitions that comprise much of the automatic system. The elephant and the rider each have their own intelligence, and when they work together well they enable the unique brilliance of human beings. But they don’t always work together well.[2]
If you listen closely to the arguments of message followers, you will understand that that it is really the elephant holding the reins, guiding the rider. It is the elephant who decides what is good or bad, right or wrong. But only the rider can string sentences together and create arguments to give to other people. For message followers defending William Branham, the rider goes beyond being just an advisor to the elephant; he becomes a lawyer, fighting to persuade you of the elephant’s point of view.
The message follower is like the proverbial drunken man looking for his car keys under the street light:
- “Did you drop them here?” asks the cop.
- “No” says the man, “I dropped them back there in the alley, but the light is better over here.”
Message followers reasoning to support the message are the tail wagged by the intuitive dog. A dog’s tail wags to communicate. You can’t make a dog happy by forcibly wagging its tail. And you can’t change the minds of message followers by utterly refuting their arguments (which we know is easy to do).
If you want to change their minds, you’ve got to talk to their elephants. You have to convey respect, warmth, and an openness to dialogue before stating the case against the message.
Our righteous minds readily shift into combat mode. Our own rider and the elephant work together smoothly to lob rhetorical grenades and fend off attacks. The performance may impress our friends and show allies that we are committed members of the anti-message team, but no matter how good our logic, it’s not going to change the minds of message followers if they are in combat mode too.
Therefore, if you want to change a message follower’s mind about William Branham, talk to their elephant first. If you ask people to believe something that violates their intuitions, they will devote their efforts to finding an escape hatch — a reason to doubt your argument or conclusion. They will almost always succeed.Cite error: Closing </ref> missing for <ref> tag
So Bro. Branham said that 16 men died building the bridge across the river, correct?
A: That's what he said.
Q: So can we try to find the evidence that the 16 men died like Bro. Branham said they did?
At this point, you refer to the facts which can be found in our article on the Municipal Bride vision to express puzzlement... if what you say is true, how can you explain this? I just don't get it. Can you help me to understand?
NOTE: It is critically important that you do not provide any of the answers. They must search for the answers themselves.
Sometimes, it is important to even pretend that you don't get it. Continue to simply ask the question on the ONE issue that you have chosen for them. Don't tell them they don't get it. Just simply keep asking the question.
If you don't understand how to do this in the context of your situation, please feel free to send us an email and we will try to help you out.
Where do we go after we deal with the first question?
Only after you have had the message follower do the research themselves (DO NOT DO THE RESEARCH FOR THEM but you can do it with them), and after they have reached whatever conclusion they are going to reach (which may not be what the facts say), do you go on to deal with a second question.
We have a long list of questions which can be found in our article entitled "List of Issues with the Message". You can go through this list and deal with them one at a time.
WARNING: Do not deal with multiple questions at once as this is likely to trigger cognitive dissonance. Only deal with one issue at a time.
It is CRITICAL that the message follower is the one to do the research and to arrive at the conclusions. YOUR ONLY ROLE IS TO ASK QUESTIONS.
If you have concerns or run into issues while you are engaged with a message follower using the Socratic method, please feel free to send us an email.
A comment we received from a former message minister
In my personal experience in dealing with message believers, I found the shock almost overwhelming when they hit a cul-de-sac.
You may find the message believer going quiet or refuse to continue the discussion, but the seed has been sown.
Many returned months later to thank me for helping them open their eyes to the deception.
But, be warned, it takes a lot of patience.
I messed up, what do I do now?
Many message followers, when they find out the truth, immediately tell their friends, family or their spouse that:
- William Branham was a false prophet.
- They are in a cult.
- The message is false doctrine.
- All of William Branham's prophecies failed.
- William Branham lied constantly.
This will cause cognitive dissonance to kick in and your friends, family or even your spouse may completely shut down on you.
So what do you do if this happens?
You are going to have to eat a bit of humble pie...
Your conversation with your mom/dad/wife/husband/friend is going to have to go something like this:
- I'm sorry I came on so strong. The problem is I am overwhelmed with doubt about the message. But in my heart, I just want to follow Christ. I love the Lord with all my heart but there are a few issues with William Branham and his message that I am having some serious problems with. All I want is to know the truth. Am I seeing things incorrectly? I need help with understanding these things or I am going to have to walk away from the message? Do you want me to do that? Would you help me understand where I am wrong? Would you help me find the truth?
These last questions are difficult to say "no" to. However, it is important that you ask the questions truthfully. I think all of us want to find the truth and it is important to search for the truth.
If the message follower responds with a "yes", then they are potentially on a journey towards truth. But you are going to have to go SUPER SLOW.
Because you have already got in their face with the problems, you are going to have to simply ask one question at a time and don't do anything other than to focus on simple questions. DO NOT OVERWHELM THEM WITH QUESTIONS!!!
We then slowly go forward using the Socratic method which we discussed above.
Footnotes