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Thanks to DWBH and the rest for their bravery. We had already exited, but we were small fish...others we knew and cared for made the decision to leave because of that letter. Those were scary times. Guess you had to be there...

Thanks for giving the context of that letter's impact, DWBH. I happened to be at HQ when you guys sent it out. I did not see a copy then. I hadn't seen it until 10 minutes ago. When you wrote it, I had already resigned from the Research Department (all that drama is in Undertow) and I was sewing draperies in the OSC at the other end of the hall. I was also trying to gain some sanity by attending college classes at OSU in Lima and packing up my stuff to get the hell away from HQ that August. I wish you and I had had a chance to talk then ... I know how hard it is for anyone who wasn't around at that time to grasp how chaotic the whole shebang was. Over the years I've tried to paint the picture for former Wayfers and for outsiders who never heard of TWI. The best analogy I have so far is to say it was like a tornado came through a small town and demolished a lot of it. A few survivors tried to rebuild using the same kind of original materials, but some of the people who closely examined the situation discovered that the original materials were rotten to begin with. They decided that the best use of their time and energy was to rebuild other kinds of houses elsewhere.

I was a very early reader, a very early writer - way before my first school. In later years, I trained as a lawyer. Specifically, as a litigation lawyer. I started in general practice, but the firm I was with had a specialty in personal injury, defending on behalf of insurance company clients. I prepared court documents, and presented cases in court from time to time. I wrote letters on behalf of my clients, and responded to letters in. I also did general work - matrimonial, general debt matters, and such like. Negotiated settlements or compromises. I'm also a northern lass. Northerners tend to be more direct in what they say. But usually I'm more nuanced, more careful in how things are said. So, you can see that words, crafting responses, etc, are what I've dealt with all my life, sometimes directly, sometimes in more cushioned language. TWI was thrilled to get this professional person that they'd sucked in. I wasn't over-impressed by PFAL, which even as a newbie seemed incoherent in places. I wasn't impressed by the rather childish collaterals. The grammar in these documents appalled me, but hey, I managed to see through and forgive all the mistakes to try to get to the truth of the Bible. I shouldn't have ignored the red flags, but brought my forensic skills into play. But ... one trusts church ministers. At least, they ought to be trustworthy. Religion wasn't my specialist subject; words and law are. So when I spoke up occasionally in rez, what happens? Nobody listens to what I say, but I'm treated as though I were at fault. I got told, it's not what you say but how you say it. Go and learn to speak differently. I was given loads of verses to memorise. In actuality, what they were doing was using Bible verses as a cudgel to beat me up. They were attacking a thing I was good at. They tore down my self-confidence. And it has taken all this length of time - how long is it, well over 20 years - to see where the problem really is. What the disconnect is (so, I'm a bit of a dunce at times, too!). They said one thing, BUT THEY NEVER MODELLED APPROPRIATE BEHAVIOUR. What did we get, especially in rez? The higher-ups didn't model words of gentleness or kindness, but shouting. Words of condemnation. Threats. Bullying. Manipulation. Of course, some coordinators spoke kindly, were nice people. But the Corps Coords, the Dept heads, etc, could be self-important and throwing around of their weight. What's really interesting is that nobody I know now have ever said any of those things to me, that I was accused of in TWI. People have been kind, patient, generous in their loving support. Lovely to me when I was first getting my head back in order - a (now) dear friend said when I first came on the scene, they all thought I was rather strange and that I came out with some very odd things, said and did things in a disconcerting manner. These people in my church, and the Christians I've met from other churches, model patience, kindness, genuine caring, the soft answer. The vicar did pick me up on one thing I said, that had been taken the wrong way and had caused hurt to a third party, but he did it with such gentleness and care that it wasn't a fearful confrontation but something that led to reconciliation and a good outcome for all involved. Those are excellent models to follow. I am so thankful for the patience of those who genuinely love God. And for the humble example they set.

Hi chockfull! Just to update you on the chronology you misstated....... The 37 page thing was NOT in response to the "loyalty pledge" letter sent out by the bots. That letter is here in the archives, and I believe it went out in March of 1990. The 37 pager was written to demand an Acts 15 kinda "Council of Nicea" meeting at HQ to determine the course forward after the debacles of 1986. It was written to expose the fraud of Geer's coups and the Twustees' complete "spiritual" incompetence. It was written to confront them all with the abject immorality, hubris, greed, and sexual perversions that had been known "behind the scenes", both by participants and their loyal opposition. Personally, I wanted to "let 'er rip", tell it like it really was, and get everybody into the damn auditorium until we fought it out once and for all. Typical NYC negotiation style. LOL! As you can see by the final product, that style was NOT adopted. We agreed that we had to keep it all "respectful and word-centered"(sic!) in order not to immediately cause WWIII. Again, the goal was Acts 15, confrontation, repentance, forgiveness. Obviously, that sure as hell didn't work! The basic initial attitude the bots and Geer spun, was "Who in the hell do these possessos think they are?!! How DARE they attack the MOGS like that!" Within in a month, (I believe it was 3/26/1987) the Geer tape went out to all corpse worldwide that the authors of that evil letter were all "marked and avoided", excommunicated in disgrace as Baal worshippers. LOL! We gave the original recipients of the letter ( as listed in my post above) 10 days to respond. If they did not, we told them we would bring it before the "entire Church" as Matt 18 dictates, and mail it out to everyone we had an address for. We did not get a response in 10 days and that's when the 7000 copies were mailed. Tom Reahard personally paid for the rooms and conference room we rented at the local Holiday Inn to write it, and paid for ALL the copies and mailing charges of the 7000. No TWIt money was used. Again, there was no Internet, no social media, no e-mail, no texts, no cellphones, and few wayfers had a PC. The TWIts controlled communications, command, and control. The propaganda machine went into overdrive from HQ. I had threats against me and my family requiring me to go to the local police to report them and seek protection. Sue was also grossly threatened. The letter went for the belly of the beast with hand axes. LOL. We cut it open, but the wounded beast went berserk! The letter, as weak as it may seem now, was the first step in the turning away. Small step, but a step nonetheless. One thing for sure......it dramatically and drastically changed the lives of everyone who wrote it forever, except for jally, who continued repeating the same things over and over again, expecting gawd to make jally's biblical fantasies and delusions come to pass. Looking back now, I'm glad we wrote it. I'm glad we sent out as many as we did......thanks Tom!.......and I'm glad we had any impact at all. "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose......."--Kris Kristofferson...........peace.

You think sitting through this class as a student was embarrassing? Imagine the level of embarrassment felt standing in front of the class as a presenter.

When there was some sort of finalized vpw VHS version, how many of you were traumatized by that UGLY thing vpw wore instead of a normal suit? Those 70s colours with the NECKERCHIEF or whatever it was? I could never hear his opening remarks over that thing! Or the laughter in the room over it, or whatever. One thing pointed out was he did something clever- when the subject matter got particularly uncomfortable for the room, he'd suddenly focus on TIck the dog and talk to him. Apparently, a number of complaints about how the 1.0 and 1.1 versions went led to him adjusting things. vpw was fond of flying under the radar, and preferred having a chance to fine-tune things so he looked less creepy and more "no, this actually IS for your own good." Sort of how the sexual predator needs to adjust the look of the van and the type of candy offered from the back.

The adults walked away............... The adults saw thru vic's schtick ...... The adults had their own lives and work to do.... The adults weren't going to get succored into cheap, knock-off sex tripe.... All thru the years, 1958--->.........most adults walked away from wierwille.... The youth stayed........ Checking things out......and the camaraderie of others around them.... The young mind is not fully developed until age 25... The naïve mind dismisses things that a discerning mind sees.... The "renewed mind" doesn't see sin in "the man of god" [pfal]...../snarc The cult mind has been indoctrinated by incremental steps.... The culthead invests decades into worthless drivel and cult worship.... Damn.......sure wish that I'd WALKED out of that CF&S class and away from twi !!

That letter was Pat Lynn and Sue Pierce's idea. Sue was there for the entire time (3 days) it took to write it. The original intent was to let 'em have it, patterned after Zola's I Accuse. But, Jally was still full-time staff in D.C. He stated that if we were too "raw", no one would ever read it, pointing out that our eventual audience would be wayfers only. So, we toned down the rhetoric and went Wayspeak Bible on them. That was why, at the end, after we signed it, I stood up at the table and pulled jally up by his shirt collar, pulling his face directly up to mine, and said with great seriousness: "You better not fuck us on this John!", then let him go. Well, Jally DID fuck every one of us who signed that letter including his own wife. As far as any long-term effect from the letter, after the initial mailing to the BOT, Region and Campus Coordinators and the limp coordinators in the states we were from, jally got hold of a mailing list and we sent out 7000 copies of the letter to everywhere including several other countries! This prompted the March, 1987 Geer tape to the world, and the first exodus of thousands began to roll around the US! Every corpse person on Earth was told if they read that stupid letter they'd get possessed. Anyone known to have read it, or had a copy was dropped from the corpse. Word went out from HQ that if anyone talked to any of those who wrote that letter they'd immediately get possessed. However, the 7000 made thousands more copies, and, as I said before, they were leaving by the thousands. Eventually, the word from HQ was that Sue Pierce and Dubofsky were "born again of the wrong seed", and the "others" were "packing multiple vicious daimons.....5 Star Generals", and no one but tippy-top leadership could handle us! So, I disagree strongly with Twinky's trivialization of the impact of that letter. In response to that mass exodus, we decided to incorporate CES the following May, 1988. Immediately upon signing the 501(c3) charitable corporation incorporation papers, Robert Belt, Sue Pierce, and I resigned from the "founding" board of directors and never participated in anything jally ever said or did since. The rest of us, except for Tom, all went back to school......Robert--Business.....Sue--Baptist and then Methodist Seminaries, and Dubofsky-- Nursing School. Jally never changed what he was doing. Never went to any "ministerial" training other than TWIt'n'dic. Just kept on doing the same thing with just a few "new" teachings he took from the signatories to the letter. The three of us resigned because jally wanted to add Schoenheit and the Graesers to the BOD, and pay to move them to Indianapolis, as well as have Monentus "officially" endorsed by CES. The three of us said if you do that we quit, so we did. The letter most certainly was wayspeak and waybrained. I was out of TWIt for 2 months, Lynns were still full-time, Robert was 1 month out of TWIt, Tom just 3 weeks, and Pat for 2 weeks? Jally was still full-time staff! Sue had been traveling and teaching, as well as presenting an incredibly insightful critique of AOTS, since early fall, 1987. How far away from wayspeak and waybrained were you at those stages of your exit, Twinky? Just sayin'....... it is my opinion that, the 37 page letter struck terror into the hearts of the twustees, and pushed Geer's insanity beyond limits acceptable to thousands of wayfers around the world. The TWIt you were in Twinky, was quite different from the one we "letter writers" left. Maybe talking with some of those who were in and left at that time might engender a little more understanding of exactly what that letter meant to the downfall of TWIt at that time with NO Internet, social media, or any allies in our cause. Thanks for reading.

Yeah - - that’s some sick evil $hit alright ! ! ! and besides that – think of the ministry-wide support this sexual predator had – though unbeknownst to us peons helping to run CF&S classes, we facilitated wierwille’s subliminal indoctrination toward moral oblivion.

I went to ROA 89. I said that either things would get fixed then or not. If they got fixed then, I'd be right there when they were. If not, I'd have a chance to buy from the bookstore one last time, as well as the attendees' tapes and so on. The supposed theme was "Speaking the Truth in Love." We talked about it but it was so absent that even the attempts to get the audience to chant along were delivered with zero conviction on both sides. *flat* "Because we're speaking the truth. In what?" *flat* "Love." When I returned, I said the theme was "Speaking About 'Speaking the Truth in Love'", That's what happened. We spoke about it but nobody, especially lcm, actually DID it. twi has always been good on talking ABOUT stuff while never actually DOING it. vpw started it, and it was pretty much what he did when he wasn't simply plagiarizing or making up imaginary people to use for examples. (Although he could also plagiarize WHILE talking a good game- like Leonard's stuff on divine revelation and so on.)

So the Way did put out a tape class called Keys to Financial LIberty wherein G@ry Fr3d3rick teaches things like net worth, budgeting, tracking finances, recovering from a hardship, retirement planning. The problem the Way has is not in being able to put out Dave Ramsey like materials which they can do fine, it is in the overt control, manipulation, and overstepping of boundaries in their policies and interactions with followers. The Way has boundary problems. Why? Because the Way is a cult. Functionally, the Way operates on "It Is Policy" over "It Is Written" and has forever. The position of the person saying it in the Way is much more important than what it is that is being said. Yet, every once in a while a person in very high authority in the Way can just wax reflective and say "The Bible teaches us this" in a soft voice to back off all critics of a Pharisaic policy. In a Pharisaic society, the financial liberty really only goes to the top Pharisees. Everyone else gets a cool idea while money flows upward.

Well…so much for wierwille’s and top leadership’s expertise in discerning of spirits – I mean, if one of those wrong seed ne’re-do-wells can make it all the way to being the trunk coordinator of USA! …man oh man, I’m gonna have to reevaluate all that stuff I learned in the Advanced Class. (actually – I’ve relegated all that stuff to the junk table at the back of my own Advanced Class – which explores the possibility of TWI’s top leadership being operated by all nine daimons all the time. ) But seriously, thanks to WordWolf for starting this thread, to HAPe4me for the link/PDF of the letter - I’ve downloaded it and look forward to reading it in light of the illuminating context provided by DWBH and Penworks.

Oh , you must be talking about that other porn video The Poon Hound of New Knoxville

Just to be clear, don't you mean.................dic'in'what'shername? Sorry......it just seems fitting to call out the sexual predator that "preyed on the youth and abused/manipulated us for years."

I was 2 months out twit when this letter hit the presses. It was imo a slap upside the head of the bots and anyone else on their team. I for one am glad it was accomplished and remain thankful to this day for the authors. It was words “fitly spoken” at that time.

Yeah thinking some more about Chockfull & Twinky posts - I must say “great” research TWI - “studying” an ancient culture’s economical system as a basis for modern day financial strategy.. I’m not a financial wizard or anything - not crazy about going into debt either - but my wife and I don’t live beyond our means - it’s the way things work in the real world - to buy a home, further your education, start a business - sometimes people need loans. Yeah, this is one bit of TWI’s “research” that I think has a hidden agenda behind it. And I think it’s financial hobbling - it’s my opinion their intent is to keep followers strapped for money to prevent them from straying from their influence. Really it’s a twofold exploitation: 1. send a generous portion of your hard earned money to them AND 2. don’t get tied up in anything that will keep you from putting the ministry first. I once left a job because the boss would not take me off the on-call roster - it was interfering with my responsibilities as a Twig coordinator, don’t cha know! I think if someone can exert a major influence in your decision-making process over money matters - they more or less can determine where you will live, what you will do for work, how far you’ll go career-wise, the quality of your health, how many kids you’ll want to have , where your kids will go to school, etc. Funny...what happened to the “increases prosperity” claim on the back of the green PFAL sign up card? I guess their “research” found some changes were in order.

The debt thing really should be completely changed. TWI doesn't teach proper budgeting skills - when I was in rez we all had to write down what we spent our monthly pocket money on, and it was scrutinised when we got our next pocket money. But budgeting skills and forward planning, as such, weren't taught. I contrast that with what churches here are doing to help people learn about finances, and get out of debt. No beating with cudgels, no condemnation, but instead good solid advice and help. Contact with creditors too, to get them to hold off with their intimidating letters and visits. Just suppose: if TWI had taught budgeting skills and debt management, how much that skill base could have been taken into the community to help people learn to balance their budgets. It's not "research" as such, but it is practical help.

Speaking as someone having non-Hodgkins lymphoma--specifically Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia--myself, I can assure you that you don't "beat" a blood cancer. Having two chemotherapies in the past four years, I realize its more like a video game: you don't win, you stave off defeat. You don't beat it, you live to fight again another day. Unlike many cancers--which can be cut out and the survivor declared cancer free--with lymphoma, the best you can hope for is remission. Even with remission, you know in the back of you mind its still there, dormant in your marrow, waiting to spring forth like the disease in Camus' The Plague and wreak havoc. My particular form of lymphoma has tumors that produce a protein. They'll continue producing that protein to the detriment of everything else. So red blood and white blood cell counts drop and will continue dropping to dangerous levels without treatment. After my last chemotherapy, my white cell count was at or near zero for more than six months. No white cells, no immunity. I was instructed not to eat anything not cooked and monitor for thrush. Luckily, after six months my marrow kick started and started doing its job.

Strange place for such a holiday greeting, but ok, you too. Personally, I hope John Lynn seeks and finds the best medical care he can get.

While that may be true, and I'm certainly no fan of what JAL preaches, it's his battle and his life. I wish him well and don't blame him for trying to figure out how to beat the illness.

Sudo - he and most others in leadership were very impressed with those who managed to get advanced degrees while being a part of TWI. Mostly for the money and legitimacy provided. Education doesn't automatically disqualify someone from being stupid, particularly in matters of religion, which defies reason anyway.