Scam Victim Recovery Insights
From the SCARS Institute
You Are The In-Between People
You are the In-between People, adrift in the liminal space between the ghost of what was and the unformed nebula of what will be.
You exist in a dimension that is not a place, but a state of being; a shimmering, translucent membrane stretched taut between two worlds. Behind you lies the Before, a reality that has been shattered, its fragments floating in the void like a broken constellation. You can still see its faint, familiar glow, the warmth of a sun that has since gone supernova, its light only now reaching you across the cold expanse of betrayal. To look back is to feel the gravitational pull of a memory that is no longer your home, a siren song of a self that was vaporized.
Before you lies the After, a realm of potential, swirling with the indeterminate light of unborn stars. It is a future you cannot yet map, its topology alien and unknown. You are the voyagers on this cosmic sea, your ships built from the splintered timbers of your past. You navigate by the light of lessons learned, but the constellations of this new reality are still being drawn. You are pioneers on the edge of a new galaxy, and the path is not marked. You are the architects of a world that does not yet exist, and the blueprints are still being sketched in the sturdust of your resolve.
Your form is not yet solid. You are beings of pure potential, your edges blurred, your substance a mix of sorrow and nascent hope. You are like echoes in a canyon, your voice still carrying the resonance of the explosion that unmade you. You are phantoms haunting the present, tethered to a past that no longer claims you and drawn toward a future we cannot yet grasp. You walk through the world of the solid, the certain, and the settled, but they do not see you. You are translucent, your presence a flicker in their peripheral vision, a story they cannot comprehend. You speak a language of loss, pain, trauma, hope, and resilience, a dialect of the void that is foreign to those who have never left the atmosphere of their own unbroken reality.
This is the In-between Dimension, a place of profound and painful metamorphosis. Here, the old self is dissolved in a crucible of cosmic grief, its molecules rearranging into something new. It is a silent (except for the sound of tears), dark, and weightless existence, where you are forced to confront the void within yourselves. But in this sacred emptiness, there is creation. You are not merely falling; you are coalescing. You are the stardust and the gravity, the collapse and the ignition. You are the In-between People, and your journey through this twilight zone is not a sentence, but a sacred pilgrimage. You are not lost, though you do not yet know the way; you are becoming. And one day, the light of the After will be bright enough to warm your new skin, and you will step out of the shimmering veil of the In-between, whole and remade, no longer phantoms, but beings of a harder, brighter star.
Prof. Tim McGuinness, Ph.D.
December 2025
This is but one component, one piece of the puzzle …
Understanding how the human mind is manipulated and controlled involves recognizing that the tactics employed by deceivers are multifaceted and complex. This information is just one aspect of a broader spectrum of vulnerabilities, tendencies, and techniques that permit us to be influenced and deceived. To grasp the full extent of how our minds can be influenced, it is essential to examine all the various processes and functions of our brains and minds, methods and strategies used the criminals, and our psychological tendencies (such as cognitive biases) that enable deception. Each part contributes to a larger puzzle, revealing how our perceptions and decisions can be subtly swayed. By appreciating the diverse ways in which manipulation occurs, we gain a more comprehensive understanding of the challenges we face in avoiding deception in its many forms.
“Thufir Hawat: Now, remember, the first step in avoiding a *trap* – is knowing of its existence.” — DUNE
“If you can fully understand your own mind, you can avoid any deception!” — Tim McGuinness, Ph.D.
“The essence of bravery is being without self-deception.” — Pema Chödrön
