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Clue Madeline Kahn Young Frankenstein

You (plural) apparently CAN see, because that was the correct answer. It was in the scene discussing the meteorite that fell in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia's capital.)

Ah, how sure are you I answered my own post? By now, I'm confident Raf would prefer if anyone jumped in here as a de facto "free post".

*checks* As of right now, I can't get in, and the website checker confirms it's down. I hope this is temporary.

The more I look into things and consider them, the more convinced I become that vpw faked ALL the "manifestations", from start to finish. How he could fake the "utterance" manifestations, we've discussed before. Anyone could make sounds, anyone could claim they're reciting a message from God. Prime the pump first by instructing the gullible public how the things are SUPPOSED to look and sound- even if the results are nothing at all like the real thing- and you're golden. Your only danger is someone catching on- especially if they encounter the real thing or otherwise realize yours don't resemble what the real thing is supposed to look like. It also explains why vpw had an explanation as to why there were 2 completely different types of prophecy, one of which had nothing to do with prophesying. So, teach people to make sounds, teach people to compose a "message from God Almighty", and keep expectations high, and you'll convince them that the sounds and the "messages" both came from God Almighty and not their expectations. This is how it COULD be done. (Start another thread if you want to discuss this further.) How to fake the "information" manifestations is a bit trickier, but it's do-able. Don't overplay your hand, keep it low-key or people will catch on. Periodically pretend that you're receiving Divine Revelation at that moment. Reveal something people didn't know you knew. vpw was fond of listening to the John Birch Society's tinfoil hat conspiracies, then coming forth in private with "revelation" about conspiracies in the US. That's how twi got into thinking 1976 was going to be the end of the US. Did it stop with vpw's death? No- and if you were listening to twi as Y2K approached, you'd know that. That was ANOTHER time the world "ended." Although both times, the world was saved because people were in twi praying, and disaster was averted. (Some people really bought that. Both times. Some of the same people bought that both times. A few people still buy that.) But it's harder to fake Divine Revelation when you don't have enough really good information to run with. So, you make up for it by having accounts of you getting revelation be either general ("he gets revelation") or second-hand with people inventing instances they "saw". You can also add a few "a few years ago, this happened but there are no witnesses" stories. We saw that with vpw's visit to India, where his account was full of miracles, and people loved him- but he never visited nor spoke to them again afterwards, not one word. Other people's accounts of the same trip (like Mrs W) skip virtually all the miracles and all the adoration, and are vague when they're not skipped entirely. So, we got stories like "vpw walked around a racetrack and got revelation showing people's hearts as white or black." As for the "impartation/power" manifestations, those are harder still to fake. vpw had stories circulating about him doing things from people who supposedly were there. When it was time for actual results, vpw fell short. Either he had other people minister healing and so on, or when something went wrong, he screamed at someone for failing to predict problems and so on. There are no accounts of "the tent top was going to collapse from flooding, so he prayed, and all that water just vanished"- instead, someone cut a hole and he blamed people. There's no accounts of "we all got together, the electricity went out, we heard him praying faintly, then suddenly the generators came back to life and there was much rejoicing." Instead, we had him admit he was still standing there. For someone who allegedly gets all sorts of prayers answered in miracles, why didn't he even ASK for one then? The most sensible answer- he knew it was pointless, he knew he wouldn't get answered. Oh, the further away the eyewitnesses were, the more miraculous things happened around him- miraculous healings in India, miraculous snowstorms kept happening to him in the US, and so on. As to the second of those, someone checked at the time, and found there was NO snowstorm at the time- he was caught lying. As to the first of those, the reaction was fascinating. Someone checked afterwards, and there was no snow. They went up to vpw, and said so. This was a man who insisted that he was snowed in, in a city. ALL traffic was STOPPED. NO trains. NO planes. NO buses. Sounds like a blizzard. I've lived through those. (For the record, in NYC, the subways usually can be kept running, even in a blizzard, and I used the subway in any blizzard or snow storm that stopped the buses.) He said this over and over. When someone came up and said there was no snow at all- not even one flake, what is the obvious response? If someone claimed there was no snow in the last blizzard I trudged through, I would be rather emphatic. Check again! I spent most of an hour either standing or trudging, and did a lot of cardio just getting to and from the subway. To say nothing of the 10 hours that followed, all of which were affected by the heavy snow. I would be clear they either were checking the wrong date, or the wrong city. IF vpw had lived through one, his response should have been similar. (It would be like someone trying to tell me the Twin Towers never fell.) What was his reaction? Nothing of the kind! Immediately, he CHANGED HIS STORY. He claimed that there must not have been any actual snow at all, but instead when he tried to arrange passage, he spoke on the phone, repeatedly, to angels who lied to him each time. (So, you can believe angels lied, or you can believe wierwille lied. According to vpw, ALL men are liars.) When it comes to teaching on the other 6, I think that vpw paid close attention to what other people said, and did his best to memorize them and regurgitate them at will. So, he could SOUND like he knew the subject, but that was only because he was RECITING what he memorized. His understanding was about as deep as that of a person who reads a wikipedia page aloud and people think he's an expert on that subject. His knowledge was spotty and intermittent. His definitions changed from Leonard's definitions. Those changes never made anything clearer, they just added syllables and ten-dollar words. That's not the actions of a man trying to make knowledge clearer- those are the actions of a man hiding that he doesn't know what he's talking about! Geer later came along and changed some definitions. In each case, each attempt at least TRIED to make things clearer. That was a man TRYING to make things easier to be understood. (Whether or not his conclusions were correct, I would not fault his intention.) IMHO, in some of the changes, he was successful, and in some, he was not because he let his interpretation guide things. Interestingly enough, in the case of at least one change, he fixed something that I thought was a rather basic problem with the definition. I went back later. That was part of Leonard's definition. Instead of fixing an elementary problem with it, vpw added lots of SAT vocabulary words to it, then taught it. I was a student who hadn't studied that subject under ANY of them, and I realized the definition had a problem- and what it was. vpw TAUGHT the thing for YEARS and never identified it. Why? He was reciting things, and only "understood" them in a rote way. If were forced to explain them using completely different words, he would have been unable. So, if you find vpw's approach is too mechanical, you're probably right. His "understanding" was from a shallow, intellect-only level of book-learning, and lacked completely any actual EXPERIENCE of subjects explaining EXPERIENCE.

Julie Andrews Victor/Victoria Lesley Ann Warren George

Since WW answered his own post, he's technically up... George

Still a free post... George

I guess this is still a free post, though Raf is technically up... George

Interesting. I forgot that Columbo (along with others like Banacek, McCloud) were rotated in NBC's Mystery Movie of the Week. Still, Columbo appeared more often than twice a year, and MMotW didn't go 12 seasons. George

It's clearly Gene Hackman's Lex Luthor, from one of the first two Superman movies. I'm going for #1. George

Awesome! I'm so happy for you.

My shiny new fiance is a very kind man, a devout Christian since his too-long-ago youth, strong supporter of his church and many worthy activities to help under-privileged and needy folk, generous with his time, money, and his heart, soul, mind and strength. He was the Safeguarding officer at his church - that is, the person responsible to whom abuses of any kind within the church community are reported; and then he independently ensures that allegations are investigated and appropriate action taken. So no surprises at abuse by "spiritual overseers" in church settings, and learning of church ministers and leaders who've done wrong in this respect. It would be some 11 years or so ago, when I felt safe talking to him about the abuses (many) that had happened to me, and he's been wonderfully patient and understanding over the time since then in helping me move to a very good place in my life now. And I have helped him in overcoming his grief and loneliness by my "just being there" when his wife of nearly 50 years together (not all married), died of a nasty disease, before we met. A good friendship has grown into = well, we get married on 6 September!

I was engaged, got engaged during my last year in rez. Was immediately sent to another campus, away from the beloved. Then on graduation we went to another country. There was so much interference from the Area Coord and the Country Coord and nothing I did (or didn't do) was right in their eyes (whether I had actually done alleged thing or not; I was condemned repeatedly for a lot of things beloved did), and beloved was also under suspicion for not having me cowed and under his thumb, basically. When finally they flung me out most ignominiously, he went back to HQ and was received by Dorothy O with open arms. And I was M&A. For why? I followed an example set by my beloved!

I'm getting married! This is still something of a surprise and a wonder to me. Am I excited, or terrified? Happily expectant, or scared of the future? Thinking it's just the best, or just the weirdest thing, that I'm in process of? Deliriously joyful, or just plain delirious? All of these things, from time to time, and sometimes simultaneously. It's a month since it was agreed, and I'm still sort of getting my head around it. I can tell you one thing. NO, that's NO, bloody church leader, or anyone else for that matter, is going to interfere.

There's 4 more days to get these letters. After that, I'm retired. I've got 8 PDF files of letters Wierwille wrote to The Way Corps (1977 - 1981). They reveal the manipulative man he was behind-the-scenes, seeking adoration, using intimidation to get loyalty, and seeking sympathy over his imagined persecution by anyone he considered an enemy. I'll send the letters until April 30, 2025 at 5 pm. How to get them? Send me a message either here on GSC or at https://charleneedge.com

Hi - can you be more specific on what it is you're feeling ignorant about, "that topic"...? What is it you're looking for more of? Put another way, if there's a gap, how do you describe it - big? Small? this or that? etc? Couple thoughts - VPW interpreted and taught 1 Cor 12 as a hierarchical organization, and a taxonomy of "the spirit", of our new birth. A list of things that he organized into what he saw as logical groupings, of what he labelled the worship, revelation and importation manifestations. He had a very mechanical view of how it all "worked" which was a product of this approach. VPW's teaching on these were predicated on his idea/explanation of "The Great Principle"..."God's spirit teaches His creation in you which is now your spirit and your spirit teaches your mind then it becomes manifested in the sense realm as you act." I don't personally want to under value the teaching of spiritual life in Christ being an ongoing, current and active "spiritual" life, with the behaviors and qualities that are written about in Corinthians, so I did get value from that. But how it all "works" is where I think VPW took a detour, he was limited by his insistence on his teaching of "believing to receive" and the implications of what he taught in that "Great Principle". He didn't get clear about the relationship between the ideas of nous, psuche, pneuma, thelema and a few other terms used in the NT, again because he seemed insistent on keeping and defending what he knew, versus learning and growing what he knew. For other sources, I'd agree that going to the B G Leonard courses, which are or were offered by the CTC group would be a place to understand the foundations of what the Way taught, from the source and might help you to move forward. Also, try the E W Bullinger books "How to Enjoy the Bible" and "The Giver and His Gifts", they cover all that ground too. I don't have any other go-to sources currently other than to read a wide range of what people of all sects and churches are doing.

"And since he is no longer insame, he has as much of a right to his own life as you and I."

Columbo?

What's a chewing gum wrapper got to do with the secrets of the universe?

At the heart of all manipulation is CONTROL. In case the manipulation Victor Wierwille used in his Way Corpse letters isn't 100 percent clear to you, I offer this YT video by Brené Brown.

"Some people can read War and Peace and come away thinking it's a simple adventure story. Others can read the ingredients on a chewing gum wrapper and unlock the secrets of the universe."