People of the Lie - Volume 3: Possession and Group Evil

Unfussily wise. Both piercing and gracious—and a captivating read to boot. I’d recommend this to pretty darn near everyone.

I spent about two years hankering for this book after reading most of Scott Peck's other works. It didn't disappoint. The author has a fairly simple interpretation of the nature of evil in otherwise "normal, regular" people. A fascinating read.

At times this book will scare you to death. He names human and cosmic evil as no ohe I have ever read.

When I become dictator of seminaries the world over, People of the Lie will be required reading. The complete title is “People of the Lie. The Hope for Healing Human Evil.” It’s by M. Scott Peck, M.D. Copyright 1983. He believes your church is a magnet for evil.

Someone gave me this book when we were going through grief (a church split) in my first pastorate in Winnipeg, MB, Canada. It’s been one of my favorites ever since. The Bible talks about evil and even about a personality called “the devil.” Jesus talks about wolves and is murdered by some. Paul warns us about wolves coming from within our churches in Acts 20. But, in spite of it all, we remain taken by surprise. I had no classes on evil or wolves or even church jerks in seminary. I was ill-prepared.

Dr. Peck says, “Utterly dedicated to preserving their self-image of perfection, they [the evil] are unceasingly engaged in the effort to maintain the appearance of moral purity. They worry about this a great deal. They are acutely sensitive to social norms and what others think about them . . . they dress well, go to work on time, pay their taxes, and outwardly seem to live lives that are above reproach. . . . While they seem to lack any motivation to be good, they intensely desire to appear good. Their ‘goodness’ is all on a level of pretense. It is, in effect, a lie. This is why they are the ‘people of the lie.’” I wonder - what do evil people who intensely desire to appear good do on Sunday morning?

Dr. Scott was a psychiatrist and bestselling author (A Road Less Traveled). This book is his best. His story-telling of cases of evil, his following of personalities over the years, his pursuit of an answer to evil through academia, religion and exorcisms is astounding. Plus, it makes for stinking fun reading.

In the book evil is defined as “The exercise of political power—that is, the imposition of one’s will upon others by overt or covert coercion—in order to avoid . . . spiritual growth.” In another place Dr. Scott defines evil as “the use of political power to destroy others for the purpose of defending or preserving the integrity of one’s sick self.” Any names you’d like to insert here?

This isn’t a “Christian book.” It’s a retelling of Dr. Peck’s journey into evil while trying to help his “incurable” patients. In a rare reference to the Bible, Dr. Scott proposes that the most deeply possessed in the time of Christ weren’t those He cast the demons out of. It was the religious leaders who in their possession thought they were pure. They were used by the Devil to put a contract out on Jesus and kill him, and then felt justified because they didn’t put the money back into the offering plate. The evil believe they are good. They want to keep their demons.

Towards the end of the book, after giving the example of Eichmann being declared “perfectly sane” by a psychiatrist at his trial, Dr. Scott asks, “What are we do to with the evil when their masquerade of sanity is so successful, their destructiveness so ‘normal’? First, we must stop buying the masquerade and being deceived by the pretense…Evil can be defeated by goodness… The fact is, simple-sounding thought it may be, the methodology of love is so difficult in practice that we shy away from its usage… How is it possible to love people who are evil? … This process may be painful to the bearer of the light, occasionally even fatal.”

This book is terrific to the end – I wish I had read it back when it was written, almost 30 years ago. However, evil hasn’t changed any. Read People of the Lie and you’ll agree.

danielcooley.com

This is a thoughtful, probing dive into a frankly terrifying subject (the ubiquity of human evil). While I don’t agree with all of his ideas/conclusions/opinions, this book broadened and challenged my understanding of something I’ve not given much thought to, and will never think the same about again.

I was very dubious of this book, and rightly so. Combine 80s psychological writing, devout Christian morals, and nearly pornographic lip-service to the Scientific Method. An atrocious book that succeeds in little other than illustrating one man’s struggles with his own idea of evil—while pretending objectivity. Predicate thinking at its most nauseating.

Scary, in that after reading this, I saw evil in a clearer light than before. And group evil is the worse form of all. Peck is a master at getting to the core of human psychology and explaining it in lay terms.

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