Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Rebekah's Form Letter.

Here is Rebekah's form letter. I wrote some comments about it, if you want to read them, my post follows this letter.


My name is Rebekah Anast, I am the firstborn daughter of Michael and Debi Pearl,
I would know (I am their daughter) whether their techniques are violent and unjust, or loving and temperate. I would know if the result is an emotionally damaged and fearful child, or a creative, successful, happy adult. I would know, yes, better than any one of these angry people, whether Michael and Debi Pearl are barbaric child abusers, or loving, successful parents.

Every type of abuse leaves evidence to prove its occurrence, whether it be a mark on the spirit or the body. Let me give you the evidence that is me:

I am 32 years old, married and the mother of three children. I am the happiest person I know, and my life is full of fruit; my own three very happy, balanced children who are completely sound in body and mind.

I have written articles, books, screenplays, and traveled the world for 4 years, meeting new people, eating new food, ministering to those in need, and loving life. I always returned to my favorite place and my favorite people... my family.

I married a wonderful man who is worth every moment of reverence and honor I give him; he is my best friend and only lover.

I have very few bad memories of childhood, all of which I can recall clearly; my dog dying, my hand getting cut on a fresh pine board, my brother being stung by bees, and my father’s grief over a friend’s suffering. That’s all that I can recall.

I remember only one spanking. I remember it because I laughed all the way through it, and so did my Dad. I had played a prank that was dangerous, but funny, and fully deserved a spanking for it, but my parents were unable to spank me without laughing. That is the only spanking I clearly remember. The others were so well-deserved my conscience was able to write off the memory once the deed was paid for.

I was never injured in body or spirit by the training I received. I was never “struck” in anger. I did receive non-injurous spankings on my fully clothed backside with a willow switch when I had clearly transgressed a known “law” of the house. These spankings did not leave bruises or abrasions, or emotional distress.

I learned by the gentlest way possible that foolishness has consequences and wise choices make life comfortable. This training has literally saved my life and I am eternally grateful to both my parents for using a literal rod to train my flesh to make wise choices.

My brothers and sisters were my best friends growing up. We did everything together; swimming, playing, working. We usually got in trouble together too, and when spankings were due, they were due all around. However, trouble was hard to find, as either Mom or Dad was almost always with us, joining in the fun, the projects, and the learning. From dancing in the rain, to building forts, to learning to ride a bike; they were there, so much a part of my life.

A person is innocent until proven guilty. I have proof that Michael and Debi Pearl are wise and loving parents: I am the proof, and every one of my siblings would agree with me.

Almost everything we (my parents) have ever written is available online for FREE on nogreaterjoy.org; and everything else is as inexpensive as possible while still allowing No Greater Joy to operate as a non-profit organization, geared toward helping thousands of parents and children.

A lot of information about the Pearl’s on the internet is simply taken out of context or completely misquoted. Look up the quotes on nogreaterjoy.org for yourself and make sure your source isn’t lying or misconstruing the truth. It’s important to the homeschool movement that we be accountable for our views, instead of blindly following the loudest sensationalist, or giving them credibility of any kind.

Rebekah (Pearl) Anast

I give full permission to reprint or repost this article in it’s entirety in any format

15 comments:

Hermana Linda said...

Wow. She says, "I married a wonderful man who is worth every moment of reverence and honor I give him; he is my best friend and only lover."

Reverence is only for God. To revere a man is to make him an idol.

I have read some of her writings and as far as I can see, she is suffering from Stockholm syndrome. She was never allowed to feel any emotion except for happiness, so that is what she is left with. What happened to the other emotions? How deep are they buried? Are they doing damage, or is it a good thing to have them buried? I'm convinced of the former.

Chris said...

Rebekah writes: "That is the only spanking I clearly remember. The others were so well-deserved my conscience was able to write off the memory once the deed was paid for."

If she can't remember any of her other spankings, how could she know whether they were "well deserved" or not? How could she know of the role of her "conscience," if indeed it played any role, in her current amnesia about these incidents?

This sounds more like traumatic amnesia to me.

deb said...

Hermana, I think that she is suffering from some type of Stockholm Syndrome also.

Chris, I agree I don't know how she can wipe the memory of a spanking from her conscience just because she felt it was deserved. That is odd reasoning and makes me wonder about her mental state.

Lyn said...

Uh, it's kind of possible to do all of that stuff such as having fun one with one's kids without using a literal rod...

I do not understand these folks. She seems like a nice person, but my heart is sad for her.

Lyn said...

Uh, it's kind of possible to do all of that stuff such as having fun one with one's kids without using a literal rod...

I do not understand these folks. She seems like a nice person, but my heart is sad for her.

Anonymous said...

it struck me too when a read it a while ago. she's dissociative. that's the point i've been making along about these people and everybody gets mad when i say it.

i'll say it again anyway. michael pearl is a sadistic pedophile. anybody who disputes that is either extremely sexually repressed or shares his inclinations on some level and can't admit it.

pedophiles know naturally how to create dissociation in their victims because it was done to them. this is criminal pervert 101 stuff. no wonder he doesn't want any of his followers to read psychology. he also uses operant conditioning principles, borrows freely from freud, melanie klein, anna freud, bf skinner, etc. he's not a dumb man. he's no hillbilly. i'm not buying his non-existent biography.

michael pearl has written handbooks for parents to cause dissociation in their children. why do pedophiles want to cause dissociation? that's easy. because then they can continue to sexually abuse the children without the children even remembering it, hence no chance of getting caught. or at least a diminished chance of getting caught.

remember michael's advice to the wife of the pedophile father? remember how disingenuous and like a catholic bishop in the 1970's it sounded?

i'm quite certain that this is all about a sexual relationship, most likely consensual by now, between michael pearl and his daughter. that's why they both INSIST she NEVER had another lover. just daddy dearest.

after all, don't you know? sex is the highest form of worship. michael pearl wrote a whole book about it. and children are to worship their parents like gods until they're like 7 or some arbitrary number where michael pearl decides children understand the sacrifice of jesus, or some other such bologna.

Anonymous said...

this is a very informative article. maybe rather than trying to appeal to reason or theology with these people, just to show them that michael is imitating the very science he claims to hate.

http://primal-page.com/stein.htm

deb said...

Lottie Jump, I have always felt that there was something beneath the surface of the Pearl family that they simply are not showing us. I don't want to speculate in case I am wrong.

Anonymous said...

Lottie Jump: You are not the first person who has suggested that there is a strong sexual component in what the Pearls write.
In fact, on one site where I am a member, another poster copied several quotes from TTUAC, and gave them to a friend who is a psychiatric social worker, asking for her opinion.....Her immediate reaction: "Whoever wrote this is a child molester".
When the gentleman said, "Oh, you mean child abuser", the woman replied:
"I mean exactly what I said. This person should be in prison. He is a pedophile".

I have no degrees, but that was the feeling I had from way back. That was what made my stomach turn over.....

[Zooey]

Anonymous said...

I just re-read this post & noticed this:[quote]Almost everything we (my parents) have ever written[/quote]

It sounds as though she has no understanding of any boundaries between her parents & herself.....almost as though there is no separate person called Rebekah....
If she did write this herself, I would think this is :-( an example of how she is in need of serious help......

Unknown said...

Lottie Jump,
I have to agree with you 100%
P

Deborah J. Kanode said...

This is interesting.

It is good to know that their children, with the lead of their eldest child, is really with them all throughout this mess,. This is simply good.

However, as this may be a striking statements, it will be a long serious battle. This may be perceived as something helpful but the question still remains "how true is this?"

deb said...

Deborah, clicking on your name leads me to a jewelry store. I have never had that happen before.

PDeverit, those are interesting statistics.

David said...

Similarly, if we had time to review all the other major irrational ideas that lead humans to become and to remain emotionally disturbed, we could quickly find that they are coextensive with, or are strongly encouraged by, religious tenets.

If you think about the matter carefully, you will see this close connection between mental illness and religion is inevitable and invariant, since neurosis of psychosis is something of a high-class name for childishness or dependency; and religion, when correctly used, is little more that a synonym for dependency.

In the final analysis, then, religion is neurosis. This is why I remarked, at a symposium on sin and psychotherapy held by the American Psychological Association a few years ago, that from a mental health standpoint Voltaire’s famous dictum should be reversed: for if there were a god, it would be necessary to uninvent him.

If the thesis of this article is correct, religion goes hand in hand with the basic irrational beliefs of human beings. These keep them dependant, anxious, and hostile, and thereby create and maintain their neuroses and psychoses. What then is the role of psychotherapy in dealing with the religious views of disturbed patients? Obviously, the sane and effective psychotherapist should not—as many contemporary psychoanalytic Jungian, client-centered, and existentialist therapists have contended he should—go along with the patients’ religious orientation and try to help these patients live successfully with their religions, for this is equivalent to trying to help them live successfully with their emotional illness."

Albert Ellis

http://www.volconvo.com/forums/philosophy-religion/1936-religion-illness.html

Anonymous said...

I know Mike Pearl a little. I don't agree with him on a lot of things. But I don't think he is a pedophile. And I certainly don't think he is carrying on with his daughter. It is logistically impossible as they are only in the same location once or twice a year and surrounded by family. However, I do believe Rebecca was abused, but not by a family member.