<Some years back while driving through Oregon, I came across a videotape in a junk shop that purported to be footage of Benny Hinn smoking crack. However, when I took it home and watched it, he was merely smoking weed through a nifty little glass pipe.>

The devil weed! *Shocking*
Maybe weed laws is the way to bring down the Hinn dynasty!

<That has nothing to do with hypnosis except that Hinn has hypnotized his followers to perceive him with both negative and positive hallucinations.>

What fascinates me is how he's managed to induce such a large following, into something as patently absurd as the televangelist gospels. Clearly, he -utilizes- the trance most people are already in for Jesus and the Bible malarkey, which, when combined with slick showmanship and a glitzy marketing campaign, can essentially grab hold of the average mindless 'Christian' by the brain-stem for a financial shakedown.. But wouldn't you think there would be an eventual "blow-back" from people who come to their senses and realize they've been duped? Don't you think these followers get buyer's remorse when the miracles they've paid for don't arrive? Or is that somehow "written in" to the scam?

About a week ago, a video surfaced on the internet of Tom Cruise basically revealing his own mindless devotion to the Church of Scientology. The video was meant for in-church use only, but somehow it was leaked and got a lot of people talking about his apparent lunacy. Yet, aside from the blatant lies and streamlined marketing system, the Church continues to persist (and if you believe the propaganda, even Thrive), long after its psychopathic pulp writer kicked it while in hiding.

How is that this stupidity exists in the first place -- is that people are too lazy to think? And how is that it persists in the face of obvious contradiction -- is the trance that powerful?

I might have speculative answers, but thought I'd try to enliven some of the posting here by stirring up the words a bit.