Gaslighting - What is That? A Crash Course for Beginners

Yep, I'm a #MeToo victim of gaslighting and had just watched GASLIGHT (making comparisons) on YouTube a few days before Steve Skojec's September 25th article - Pope Francis is Gaslighting You. That's a Form of Spiritual Abuse - on his One Peter Five blog. The coincidence led me to want to warn others about this evil psychological abuse.

See the cartoon of Hillary gaslighting by her deceit and lies? Now, in your mind, replace her face with that of Pope Francis (since I couldn't find an equivalent cartoon for him), or spouse, relative, friend or co-worker and in one quote have him/them tell you something you want to hear, then in the next quote have him/them contradict what he/they just said. That's gaslighting. It's systematic deception used as a manipulation tactic to gain power, and Pope Francis is an expert at it. 

The term gaslighting can be traced back to a 1938 play. British playwright Patrick Hamilton created Gas Light, a mystery/thriller that premiered in London and played there for six months. But most people familiar with the history of the term think back to the 1944 film adaptation of the play, Gaslight starring Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer.

An old woman is murdered by an unknown man, who then ransacks her house, looking for her valuable and famous rubies. The house remains empty for years, until newlyweds Paul and Bella Mallen move in. Bella soon finds herself misplacing small objects - actually stolen and hidden by her husband - and, before long, Paul has her believing she is losing her sanity. He does this for his own purposes. He wants his wife to be declared insane and put in an institution. He wants whatever she says to not be believed by either her or anyone else because she holds the secret to the truth that he is really the murderer of the old woman.

Example of gaslighting by a co-worker

The mainstream media gaslight us everyday because abusive people gaslight. The abuser could be a spouse, relative or a co-worker, but now we have a pope who does it! Pope Francis is a genius at spiritual gaslighting, manipulating situations to further his progressive agenda while keeping the people in the pews confused, hoping for a better outcome on some situation while doubting that what the Church has always taught is better for the Church instead of what he is proposing. 

It goes back and forth creating uncertainty. Francis quotes Jesus Christ and the Church Fathers on doctrine, then the next day says the opposite with a progressive stance on the thing he just denied he said the day before. It incurs confusion in the victim's mind, causing them to question their own sanity (I never questioned mine. I filed for divorce.) or in the case of Church politics, their own stable view of truth handed down through the ages.

So please watch and learn. This 1940 British film (in black and white) adheres more closely to the original play upon which it is based – Patrick Hamilton's Gas Light (1938) – than the better known 1944 MGM adaptation. I would have also attached the 1944 YouTube video/film starring Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer but one has to pay to watch it. This older version is free and equally well done.

GASLIGHT