Along the same Text manipulation line...

[Dr. Scott S. Jones]

Occasionally I will copy text into a blank document, opened in VIM, only to
find that each successive line is shifted, such as this: 

each line
  is shifted
    to the right
      in a very
        annoying pattern
	  which requires me
	    to manually restore 
	      it to

this sort of form
where the lines all line up
to the left side. 

What might cause this when pasting text into VIM and how can I correct it? 

Scott