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I must disagree with you on that point. While it may not have been invisible to you or a small minority of other Way followers, it was certainly highly touted and considered a crucial tenet of The Way in the 1970's. In fact, if you review the Way Corps principles (which are identical to the FellowLaborer principles), you will note that it is listed as part of #4.--Practice believing to bring material abundance to you and the Ministry.) Even today, S.O.W.E.R.S lists this as being one of its 5 principles.

Magical thinking is a mental tool used by all minds (human and animal). It is an evolved mental process. The Law of Believing is specifically conditioning your own magical thinking to the completely imagined reality of The Way. Group self-delusion. Which is why nobody, ever, has been able to explain The Law of Believing in practical terms. Just throwing that out there.

According to some online definitions an apologist is a person who offers an argument in defense of something controversial; a person who defends or supports something (such as a religion, cause, or organization) that is being criticized or attacked by other people. I will admit I am an outright apologist who wholeheartedly argues for the defense of using honest intellectual standards when it comes to discussing all things related to TWI. And I feel TWI has attacked the lives of good honest people as a parasite or some other gawd-awful soulless mooching creature thru the use of their mind-numbing doctrines and soul crushing practices....yeah let's talk turkey about the practical consequences of doctrine shall we. You have stated in this post that you are not an apologist – I never said you were; I merely challenged you to provide clearly identified and defined hardcore facts instead of spouting vague generalities, speculations and assumptions. Without providing counterpoints to those made on this thread I for one am at a loss for understanding why you would make such bold declarations without any basis in facts. Speaking for myself - on this thread or any other thread where i criticize some aspect of TWI you will notice i quote from TWI material, refer to a live teaching or some other personal experience or incident that i had witnessed. I may not be the most articulate person or even half way decent when it comes to debates - but i have yet to lose an argument over what I experienced. />....so if you could pleeeeeeease be more specific in what you experienced. by the way - at best you have been stating your perception of the situation - maybe we'll get a better idea of the "reality" of the situation as you relate some real facts......just sayin' Well, I just might be nuts but that's beside the point. As stated on the main page – and with a little help of Waysider's fine tuning in post # 22 discussions about TWI doctrines, practices, and leadership usually go in the About the Way forum – which is appropriate AND necessary for telling the other side of the TWI story (exposing the ugly, dark, evil, underbelly of this two faced beast); whereas discussions of general religious/ spiritual doctrinal beliefs go in the Doctrinal forum, that is also stated on the main page. I don't understand why you feel the doctrinal forum is any "safer" than the About the Way forum when it comes to discussing doctrinal stuff. If the $hi_t don't fly in About the Way it sure as hell won't fly in doctrinal – it will be shot down – unless you have something substantial to back it up. That's just my opinion of course - I could be wrong. But on the other hand speculation is ok too – and that should be recognized as such…. sometimes speculation gets you thinking outside the box – that's why I think it's ok. Anyway I just feel it's best to be upfront about any bias you have; unless, of course you have an aversion to taking a beating every now and then . I'm not kidding! Last year I got into a discussion in the doctrinal forum – and you know what? I got a tremendous whoopin. I think it's partly because I'm unskilled in the art of debate. I do tend to punch above my weight class anyway /> . I'm sorry but you'll have to be more specific....can you cite teachings, letters, anything that made the issues apparent to others? To be honest a typical tactic of any leader vying for control is to pull the carpet out from under folks' feet; and it's not like they're yanking out any real support; it's all in their "critique" of your spiritual status; was it John T_wns3nd or some other yoyo who remarked on stage that collectively as a ministry we don't have the believing to float a turd. I mean…what the hell is that all about?!?! I did not sign up for PFAL for the express purpose of floating turds! I will NOT back down on that point - /> Did you conduct a survey of TWI followers to surmise what doctrines people had issues with back then? I don't mean to give you a hard time – but putting this post together with your other ones I get the impression you're in denial and don't want to accept the fact that you were as clueless as the rest of us back then....but again - that's just my impression i could be wrong.

Let it rain. There are lots and lots of pre-existing threads related to the "law of believing". Some are in doctrinal, as they relate to the scriptural aspects. Others are in the About The Way forum, as they relate more to the real life impact it had on peoples' lives. There is a search window in the upper right hand corner. edit: In the original PFAL materials it was not called the law of believing, it was called the magic of believing.

perhaps you could be a little lot more specific