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In Reply to: Re: A history lesson posted by Mr. Don on September 29, 2005 at 19:46:03:
It's not simply a matter of knowing more than the teacher, because very knowledgable people can and do twist and distort facts to "prove" their position. It's important to methodically analyze what a person has to say. Sometimes that's as simple as comparing two statements of "fact" made at different times.
Berg wasn't particularly well educated, but he was a charismatic liar, and therefore very convincing. I just noticed in a letter he released in 1982 (#1253, The "Signs Following" Dream) that he gives this fantastic account of being brought back from death's door at an army hospital in 1942. The healing miracle was so remarkable that the nurse ran off in astonishment to tell the doctors. If you read his actual diary from 1942 (#1723, 1942-Year of Deliverance, released for publication in 1983), his daily record of events *at the time they happened* were much less dramatic than what he made up and embellished as his testimony of miraculous healing in 1982.
In the actual diary, he's a mamma's boy suffering "heart attacks" (aka, panic attacks) after recovering from an infection or flu of some sort (pneumonia is never mentioned as a diagnosis). He promises to serve the Lord, yes, but he's also bound and determined to get a 4F classification for a military discharge. Much later in the ML1253, he talks about his WWII military service like he served with honor, but if you read his diary from that period, what he actually did was malinger in the hospital for the majority of his active service in order to cashiered out. There's nothing in his diary about people at the army hospital recognizing his recovery as a miraculous healing. What the diary shows is a young man obsessing about being separated from his mother.
