No Ron Weinland or Gerald Flurry type is ever going to get anywhere near Jerusalem to act out the role of the Two Witnesses. Dozens of Two Witnesses, no doubt, have already had their say in Jerusalem to no effect. Most end up for a check up at the local psych ward and if warranted are deported back to where they came from. Israelis don't put up with much monkey business in one of the worlds most dangerous religious cities.
Perhaps Dave Pack has figured out he has no hope to ever get into Jerusalem as both of the Two Witnesses so has moved the entire operation to Wadsworth where he can continue to deceive his gyrating members with his delusional perspectives about himself and his utter importance to the success of Jesus ever returning a second time.
I imagine Dave also will declare Wadsworth the Place of Safety out of sheer convenience to him and the fact that , as with Jerusalem, no God-Haunted prophecy hounds from the United States are going to get to move in to a World Heritage Site, which Petra is, without being confronted and sent home.
Jerusalem Syndrome
The temporary psychiatric condition-characterized by patients
believing that they have become biblical figures such as Jesus, John
the Baptist, or Moses-has been known to Israeli psychiatrists for
decades. It affects mainly Christian pilgrims but is occasionally
diagnosed in Jews who tour holy sites. Those affected begin to act
strangely, sometimes proclaiming that they are ancient religious
figures sent on a holy mission. Apocalyptic Christians expect the next
millennium to herald the second coming of Jesus on the Mount of Olives
in Jerusalem, so experts have warned that the number of patients may
increase sharply.
Professor Eliezer Witztum, a psychiatrist at Jerusalem’s Herzog
Memorial Hospital, explained that many Christians view Jerusalem as
the site of the Armageddon and the second coming. When they visit
Jerusalem, they may experience cognitive dissonance because of the
conflict between their mental image of ancient Jerusalem and the
reality of the modern city. Religious Jews with the syndrome may
believe that the building of the third temple is imminent, that the
ancient animal sacrifices will be restored, and that their own Messiah
will soon arrive.
Types
The classic Jerusalem syndrome, where a visit to Jerusalem seems to trigger an intense
religious psychosis that resolves quickly or on departure, has been a subject of debate in the medical literature.
[2][3][6] Most of the discussion has centered on whether this definition of the Jerusalem syndrome is a distinct form of psychosis, or simply a re-expression of a previously existing psychotic illness that was not picked up by the medical authorities in Israel.
In response to this, Bar-El et al. classified the syndrome
[1] into three major types to reflect the different types of interactions between a visit to Jerusalem and unusual or psychosis-related thought processes. However Kalian and Witztum have objected, saying that Bar-El et al. presented no evidence to justify the detailed typology and
prognosis presented and that the types in fact seem to be unrelated rather than different aspects of a
syndrome.
Type 1
Jerusalem syndrome imposed on a previous psychotic illness. This refers to individuals already diagnosed as having a
psychotic illness before their visit to Jerusalem. They have typically gone to the city because of the influence of religious ideas, often with a goal or mission in mind that they believe needs to be completed on arrival or during their stay. For example, an affected person may believe himself to be an important historical religious figure or may be influenced by important religious ideas or concepts (such as causing the coming of the
Messiah or the
second coming of Christ).
Type II
Jerusalem syndrome superimposed on and complicated by idiosyncratic ideas. This does not necessarily take the form of mental illness and may simply be a culturally anomalous obsession with the significance of Jerusalem, either as an individual, or as part of a small religious group with idiosyncratic spiritual beliefs.
Type III
Jerusalem syndrome as a discrete form, uncompounded by previous mental illness. This describes the best-known type, whereby a previously mentally balanced person becomes psychotic after arriving in Jerusalem. The psychosis is characterised by an intense religious character and typically resolves to full recovery after a few weeks or after being removed from the locality. It shares some features with the diagnostic category of a "brief psychotic episode", although a distinct pattern of behaviors has been noted:
[by whom?]
- Anxiety, agitation, nervousness and tension, plus other unspecified reactions.
- Declaration of the desire to split away from the group or the family and to tour Jerusalem alone. Tour guides aware of the Jerusalem syndrome and of the significance of such declarations may at this point refer the tourist to an institution for psychiatric evaluation in an attempt to preempt the subsequent stages of the syndrome. If unattended, these stages are usually unavoidable.
- A need to be clean and pure: obsession with taking baths and showers; compulsive fingernail and toenail cutting.
- Preparation, often with the aid of hotel bed-linen, of a long, ankle-length, toga-like gown, which is always white.
- The need to shout psalms or verses from the Bible, or to sing hymns or spirituals loudly. Manifestations of this type serve as a warning to hotel personnel and tourist guides, who should then attempt to have the tourist taken for professional treatment. Failing this, the two last stages will develop.
- A procession or march to one of Jerusalem's holy places, ex:The Western Wall.
- Delivery of a sermon in a holy place. The sermon is typically based on a plea to humankind to adopt a more wholesome, moral, simple way of life. Such sermons are typically ill-prepared and disjointed.
- Paranoid belief that a Jerusalem syndrome agency is after the individual, causing their symptoms of psychosis through poisoning and medicating.[7]
Bar-El et al. reported 42 such cases over a period of 13 years, but in no case were they able to actually confirm that the condition was temporary.
