T-Bone

Pinned on a grocery store bulletin board: We are telekinetic massage therapists and a moving company. Whether you have a bad back or you’re relocating to a new home – our professional telekinetic massage therapists and movers are a must during the pandemic! We adhere to strict social distancing guidelines, providing a truly touch-free service. Our receptionist is a telepath so just think of us for an appointment. (Not responsible for telekinetic mishaps to muscles, connecting tissue, ligaments, tendons, organs, bones, nerves, etc. or the dropping / damage of your precious furniture due to one of our staff having distractions, migraines, hangovers, daydreams or a bad mojo that day.)

True…and for me all it amounted to (besides listing on schools I attended) was listing the time I was in residence for 2 years in the way corps on applications that also wanted an account of lapses in employment ...I believe deciding to go in the way corps also counts as a lapse in judgement.

Then there were those times in job hunting when I would fill out an application – I would always include all that I accomplished while I was in The Way International.

Too late – since TWI usually thinks in absolutes – “almost” doesn’t count – and since you’ve already confessed it into the senses realm, there ain’t no telling how the Adversary will use it; TWI’s response to any suspicious emails will probably be something like “Did Twinky put you up to this?” (P.S. Twinky - I'm always wondering how far I can push the comedic envelope )

Now that you’ve let the cat out of the bag - you’ll probably get a response like “Twinky, is that you?”

Wow that sounds like the makings of a SNL skit, Just Thinking.. Yeah the way they’re slow to adopt certain modern things they’re almost Amish-esque in some ways …as they hobble along in the 21st century I’ve noticed they still have to rely on some archaic strategies – like classes and advances being held in abeyance due to the pandemic - see their website TWI's event schedule changes due to the pandemic

Welcome to Grease Spot, Utopian/Lunch - cool name what's the story behind that? That resonates with me...funny - I didn't think it was weird until I left...it's been said that nobody ever intentionally joins a cult - I think that's true...Grease Spot is a good place to figure some things out and unravel some of the convoluted weirdness...I've met a lot of good helpful folks here...also it's been a good place for me to think out loud - and from that I've learned how to explain my experience in a much clearer and concise manner and don't feel embarrassed or concerned about some stigma... continuing to develop critical thinking skills and self-reflection - and trying to practice some humility and empathy is really cool for your personal growth - but I also think that stuff can rub off on others - and help us all better relate to each other.

try this link - Passing of a Patriarch you can find a lot of stuff by using the Grease Spot search tool in upper right of the web page

I will always remember that a lot of the teaching methods in the way corps were quite unorthodox – if you compared them to normal institutions of higher learning.

I remember all the times I saw wierwille in person. There was always something different about him that made him stand out from the rest of us.

In his book “On Bull$hit” American philosopher Harry Frankfurt talks about things that are fake, phony or counterfeit. They may even appear genuine in many respects – but what is fundamentally wrong in every case is not what they are like or appear to be, but how they are made. The counterfeit has no real value except to those who pass it off to defraud another of something that is of real value – e.g. buying a genuine Rolex watch with counterfeit money or selling a fake art piece to the highest bidder. It’s telling folks don’t donate or lend support to any charity or good cause - instead they should give their money and support to the best cause - a ministry researching and teaching the great accuracy and integrity of The Word, blah, blah blah…The fake love of TWI is an imitation currency that betrays folks’ trust and cheats them out of their money, any resources, time, and even relationships. Real love as defined in I Corinthians 13 - is organic – great sustenance for living beings because it is so easily metabolized. Real relationships need real love – a free commerce between hearts of stuff like kindness, patience, humility, understanding, unselfishness, trust, empathy, honesty, forgiveness. TWI’s fake love is mechanical – machine like – unthinking – unemotional – - manipulative and controlling - artificial and totally self-serving. It tends to gum up the works of how relationships should function naturally. Doesn’t matter if it’s a friend, family or spouse – when it comes to The Word you should have no friends. …wierwille would often belittle emotions “feelings come and go”. TWI’s fake love is made of the opposite ingredients of real love as Twinky pointed out. And if you ask me – out of all those negative tendencies, the most dominant one is that TWI is always self-promoting to advance its own "glory", growth, interests and prosperity…In case you don’t know (or don’t care ) on Bizarro world ( see Wikipedia - Bizarro world ) - part of their code of conduct states "Us do opposite of all Earthly things!” (that’s right - when people from Bizarro talk, their speech-pattern is kin to that of Cro-Magnons )…wait - - do you think I’m going for some goofy comparison with TWI? Don’t be ridiculous! I’m telling you straight up that secret agents from the planet Bizarro have already infiltrated TWI and are intent on TWI-world domination – tricking folks into doing the opposite of what the Bible says to do – oh the inhumanity of it all! Run for the hills! E.T. phone home! It's a close encounter of the turd kind. If you could see a graph of the percentage of fake love as opposed to real love that characterized my life during TWI-involvement I think it might indicate the fake stuff was prevalent for most of my stint. Managing relationships was cut and dry. The other person is either doing The Word or they’re off The Word - and their status would determine how much time I would invest in that relationship . And if they question my involvement with TWI or challenge my beliefs they might be under devilish influence, possessed or wrong seed. During the early 70s when I was in art school (and before TWI) I had a pretty much live-and-let-live outlook toward others. But oh how things change when you join a cult. Things become polarized. The line drawn in the sand becomes more and more pronounced as far as what type of people are acceptable according to TWI's standards - why it's devoted followers of TWI of course! I can still remember the first few months after I took PFAL – how excited I was – how generous I felt toward anyone I met – I wanted to give them “The Word”. I felt "The Word" was the best way to help them no matter what the problem was. My Twig coordinator got wind of me always sharing things I learned in the class with friends from school. He had to talk to me several times to try and convince me that I shouldn’t just give away all the info from the class – no one will want to pay for the class if you give it all to them for free...oh pardon me if I didn't realize the commercial aspect of "moving The Word". ...Later on, in the way corps I had the 80/20 rule drummed into my head – spend 80 percent of my time with the 20 percent of the people who really want to do The Word…which translated from original way-speak means spend most of your time with people who are willing to do whatever TWI wants them to do...Ultimately I think this mindset even prioritized the agenda of TWI over and far above friends, family and spouse...how many friendships, families, relationships, and marriages were destroyed because the person was pressured to choose "The Word" over all else? The day I left TWI was the start of something life-affirming…heart-expanding…and truly humbling…realizing I was no better than anyone else…seeing people as wonderful individual human beings.

Your posts made me think of an old definition that I haven’t thought of in a long time – “the love of God in the renewed mind in manifestation”…besides sounding so wordy and clinical (impersonal) it revolves around the “renewed mind”. You say your marriage isn’t working? Just renew your mind... ...I think that tended to put the kibosh on communicating our true feelings and needs in an honest and respectful way…I’m no expert on relationships but I’ve found that trying to be emotionally transparent takes work and courage (especially to undo old mental habits); it does make you vulnerable – but it also promotes trust and closeness in a relationship.

Then there was the time I was serving the head table at Rome City and happened to run into wierwille and Craig on their way to the dining room.

on a side note - wierwille had a multipurpose use for I Cor. 13:5 "love…thinketh no evil” and often referred to that “principle” in other teachings – the subtext usually was a way to insulate him from close scrutiny and suspicions or rationalized his licentious behavior…These underlying themes were meant to keep in check any way corps’ observations about his lifestyle and to deem that anything done in the love of God is okay...after all you shouldn't think evil of the man of god and besides that he was so spiritually mature that he could handle anything, right?

Just some quick thoughts here - with wierwille being an unabashed plagiarist and a control freak – maybe the creative process and creative people truly mystified him as something very foreign and outside his comfort zone – hence he would lower the boom...was it something that threatened him and his "leadership"? was he envious of creative people? Did he want to control the creativity of others? Before I joined TWI, I went to an actual accredited college to learn more about the visual arts as well as being a musician active in bands from when I was 16 up until I left TWI in ’86…In my humble opinion inspiration and ideas sometimes seem to arise out of nowhere. Creativity doesn’t work like an on-demand movie-streaming service. Creative people tend to be less routine oriented, extremely curious, observant, and adventurous - sometimes to the point of shaking things up. Those traits don’t agree too well with the homogenizing tactics of TWI - attempting to render everyone the same – nice-behaving followers...Uggghhhh – the monotonous and mundane life in the way corps – teachings, teachings and more teachings – reviewing PFAL stuff over and over again. Don’t ask questions that might challenge the curriculum. Don't ever question TWI's way of doing things. "Remember, world out and Word in". Just ignore or endure the hypocrisy and Pharisee-ism so obvious in some of the elder corps and campus coordinators. And don’t buck the system. There were even the occasional teachings that stressed how the Devil has so infiltrated and poisoned the arts and that talented Way-believers (those who were TWI homogenized, systematized, and mesmerized of course) were the only ones who could put "The Word" back into the arts. …I’m glad I got out of that straight-jacket. That’s all for now…good night – sweet dreams.

== == == == We used a spray bottle of water as code enforcement with our first cat. After a while we discovered that just making the fffsssst fffsssst sound of the spray bottle with our mouth – our cat would immediately cease and desist whatever “violation” she was doing and dart off. I think just imitating the sound of the spray bottle was equivalent to the dramatic gun cock in movies and TV shows: the person with the gun pulls back the hammer or racks the slide of the pistol to intimidate someone – it conveys the idea that you will shoot them if they do not cooperate or comply with your command. I was not Military WOW – just civilian WOW - but it sounds to me like Military WOW was a lot more of an ordeal than civilian WOW.

Skyrider, I always like your detailed analysis…you got me thinking…so I set aside the fact that we’re talking about an abusive and exploitative cult. Instead I thought along the lines of something neutral business-wise (if that’s possible) of the day-to-day business operations that make it sustainable and that create some inherent value of the organization…well…I have nothing new to add to what you said – but just thinking about wierwille’s heavy-handed business model, brought to mind a familiar topic to many who have been in the workforce for a while - why employees leave managers, NOT companies. In other words, usually workers leave not because of some beef they have with the business in general - but because of something or some things they find unbearable about their manager... What follows are a couple of excerpts from articles addressing that: "Given how much you depend on your manager, it’s not surprising that the mountain of evidence shows they affect your job satisfaction and decisions to leave. Managers are usually most, if not all, of the following: A major influence on your work and priorities. The critical advocate (or detractor) for your promotion or bonus. In the best position to help resolve issues & challenges you face. Someone you must interact with on a daily basis (or if you go too long, it’s a problem, too). Because of this, a person’s manager is often the best or worst part of an employee’s job. " (from Lighthouse article on leadership & management ) == == == == "We’ve all heard the sayings. People don’t leave companies, they leave managers. People don’t quit their jobs, they quit their bosses. The way I see it, people just really don’t won’t to work for a boss who doesn’t support them or for one whose poor and ineffectual behavior actually puts employees’ career prospects and promotional opportunities at risk. Bad bosses compel good employees to leave their jobs even when they like the company." (from Forbes article ) Bad leadership has certainly compelled some TWI-followers to leave a ministry that they were heavily invested in and have strong feelings for. You’ve mentioned before that what makes TWI a cult is not their beliefs but their methods. Overall I think that’s true. But recalling my own mindset way back when I tend to think there’s some intertwining of the two - beliefs and methods – where certain aspects of one may feed and/or strengthen the other. At the core of my beliefs was the idea that the Bible is the Word of God – but suffused to that was the occasional reminders to be loyal “remember WHO taught you The Word”. The Way International is like a cult of personality (see Wikipedia - the cult of personality ) - that revolves around wierwille – propaganda, repeating big lies, embellished and/or fabricated incidents, excessive compliments/praise that created an idealized hero, an almost perfect persona of an apostle...a teacher…THE man of god for our day and time and hour. == == == == A digression on dissenters/splinter groups: wierwille’s charisma, teachings and forceful methods of control may have worked well when he was in his prime...but he's dead and gone now...even so, some core beliefs and methods are a bit entwined and still persist - he's like the ghost in the machine though the organization is now just a shell of its former self. I’d venture to say the dissenters, the disgruntled, the dissatisfied who have voiced their concerns in-person, by letter or phone or on social media have seriously tarnished the supposedly golden image of wierwille/TWI…and when it comes to splinter groups, I sometimes wonder what is the motivation to carry on their beliefs by starting their own thing. There’s such a wide variety of existing churches, non-denominational organizations, groups, fellowships etc....I think it's possible to find some place to fit in - unless they still cling to the idea they are all that's left of the truly enlightened ones who have cornered the market on truth. Is it a matter of pride or fear of losing one’s hard-earned status, TWI-credentials, or special place in a caste system? I don’t know – just thinking out loud…I get it – employees often leave because of managers and not the company itself…what I wonder though is over time how much splinter groups will inadvertently manage themselves just like TWI…how would they respond to a dissenter who says they no longer think wierwille’s teaching on the manifestations was entirely correct? How would they respond to someone who says “You know, Grease Spot has a lot of threads about wierwille being an unabashed plagiarist – what are your thoughts on that?”. Would there be any kind of pressure or patronizing to try to get the person to toe the company line?...okay – end of digression. Thinking about what Rocky said – I looked up an old article ( from Forbes article on how to learn from your mistakes ) on how to learn from your business mistakes, listing 7 vital steps: · Step 1: Review your aspirations. Going into each business initiative, you should be clear about your aspirations. · Step 2: Detail your results to date. While you’ve determined that the initiative is a failure, there are different degrees of failure. You need to precisely describe the current state of affairs and where you see things going. · Step 3: Identify the discrepancies. What’s important is to quantify, where possible, and highlight everywhere you can, the differences between what you expected and what has happened. · Step 4: Compile a list of all the “mistakes.” Without attributing blame or responsibility, put together a list of all the errors that resulted in each discrepancy. Very often the best way to do this is to construct a matrix, as many of the same mistakes produced multiple discrepancies. · Step 5: Specify the lessons you need to learn. By carefully considering the causes of the discrepancies, you’re likely to see both core singular errors in judgment as well as broader-based patterns of miscalculations. From these conclusions, you need to tweeze out the lessons so as not to repeat the same mistakes. · Step 6: Aggregate the mistakes from a number of failed business initiatives. Often you will not see a pattern of miscalculations by evaluating a single failure. Only by considering a number of unsuccessful ventures will you recognize the decisive mistakes you’re making. · Step 7: Learn the bigger lesson. Across multiple unsuccessful initiatives, you can determine ways of thinking, habitual actions, and repeated poor judgments. From here you can discern the bigger lessons you need to master in order to ensure you only make new mistakes. A powerful lesson from self-made millionaires is that failure is inevitable, and as long as you learn from your mistakes, you can take constructive steps to reach greater and greater levels of success. == == == == After reading all that - I thought maybe with TWI there's a special twist to these 7 vital steps mentioned in Forbes article - it's what they define as a mistake and what they define as success. Maybe keeping wierwille’s teachings and methods properly enshrined accomplishes what they want most – keeping those dollars rolling in to support their rinky-dink operation – moral-blinders be praised ! Hey, I’ve got an appropriate business slogan for The Way International: You don’t need us - but we sure need you

You're welcome, Rejoice !

Once again you have broadened my horizons - I had to look up panto season: "In the UK a Pantomime, or “Panto” as it is usually affectionately called, is a form of interactive theatre, performed around the Christmas season for the entertainment of millions of families... Ugly sister: “I’m much prettier than Cinderella” Audience: “Oh no you’re not!” Ugly sister: “Oh yes I am!” Audience: “Oh no you’re not!” This happens frequently with a variety of lines throughout the show and it is up to the Actors to decide how long to keep it going before they go back to the script. No Panto script is complete without the “It’s/he’s/she’s behind you!” moments. Either on stage or “front of tabs” (in front of the curtain), the children are asked by one of the main characters to let them know if a ghost/spider/gorilla or anything else appears." from: what is Panto Season sounds like a lot of fun

oh yes it is yup - note on the box cover "spin to win" = spinning your wheels = use a lot of effort without achieving anything.

Yo - sign me up ! Here's my payment for the class.

Great post, Annio! I think Grease Spot is a great place to think out loud, exchange ideas and perspectives and occasionally find old friends and even make new ones…I like the points you made using uncertain times as a springboard – everything in your recommendations goes along the lines of self-determination - the process by which a person controls their own life – which is something many of us slowly gave up as we got more and more involved and further committed to the cult. This is just my 2 cents on it all – but I think there’s something of an ebb and flow to life – there’s times of decline and there’s also times of increase…constant fluctuations…uncertainty…personally I find the book of Ecclesiastes so fascinating because it describes life’s journey in part as trying to understand and even accept all the frustrations and uncertainties along the way. The Way International preyed upon our feelings of uncertainty. It’s been so long ago – I can’t remember exactly how it went - in PFAL didn’t wierwille claim to offer something like a firm rock in an ocean of doubt, speculation and uncertainty. Cults satisfy the desire for absolute answers ( see what to know about the psychology of cults ). I think a lot of PFAL and wierwille’s teachings in general were nothing more than pat answers – typically very simplified and they sometimes seemed evasive and often didn’t adequately address the topic. That’s probably why class coordinators would often defer inquisitive students to hold all their questions until the last session of PFAL and even then with some very eager students who still persisted with questions, class coordinators might employ other deferring tactics – encouraging them to take the class again, follow wierwille’s recommendation to set aside all other reading material for several months and read only the epistles addressed to the church or some other means to postpone giving them an immediate fully satisfactory answer. I remember what it was like to be young – feeling almost invincible and fearless…adventurous – always willing to check out something new – I had a lot of self-confidence in being able to figure out how things work (being a self-taught musician, visual artist and technician). But what I lacked was well-developed critical thinking skills (as touched upon in Annio’s points 1 & 2). Unfortunately, in the way corps I found that my self-confidence…and really all the stuff that made me me was constantly being attacked and torn down – I guess I was supposedly being rebuilt from the ground up with “The Word”. In this hollow (not hallowed) institution of marketing-all-things-wierwille I would become another valuable crew-member on the TWI-tanic – supposedly an unsinkable ship that was in $hit-shape on an ocean of doubt, speculation and uncertainty…34 years later (present day) I’m happy to report I didn’t go down with the ship. I’m glad I left when I did. Now I strive to improve my critical and creative thinking skills and have a lot more self-confidence in my journey through life…and I’ve become a lot more accepting of people regardless of their beliefs or background since we’re all in this together – and it’s called life…This is a crazy year of uncertainty – the convergence of the pandemic, the politicizing of corona-virus, global recession, social unrest…and things might just get worse before …or if they get better. What will be the new normal? I found an interesting article on link: 11 ways emotionally intelligent people overcome uncertainty and thought some Grease Spotters might enjoy – so click on link I just gave – to whet your appetite I’ll leave you with a little excerpt: “Our brains are hardwired to make much of modern life difficult. This is especially true when it comes to dealing with uncertainty. On the bright side, if you know the right tricks, you can override your brain’s irrational tendencies and handle uncertainty effectively. Our brains give us fits when facing uncertainty because they’re wired to react to it with fear. In a recent study, a Caltech neuroeconomist imaged subjects’ brains as they were forced to make increasingly uncertain bets—the same kind of bets we’re forced to make on a regular basis in business. The less information the subjects had to go on, the more irrational and erratic their decisions became. You might think the opposite would be true—the less information we have, the more careful and rational we are in evaluating the validity of that information. Not so. As the uncertainty of the scenarios increased, the subjects’ brains shifted control over to the limbic system, the place where emotions, such as anxiety and fear, are generated. This brain quirk worked great eons ago, when cavemen entered an unfamiliar area and didn’t know who or what might be lurking behind the bushes. Overwhelming caution and fear ensured survival. But that’s not the case today. This mechanism, which hasn’t evolved, is a hindrance in the world of business, where uncertainty rules and important decisions must be made every day with minimal information. As we face uncertainty, our brains push us to overreact. Successful people are able to override this mechanism and shift their thinking in a rational direction… To boost your EQ, you have to get good at making sound decisions in the face of uncertainty, even when your brain fights against this. Fear not! There are proven strategies that you can use to improve the quality of your decisions when your emotions are clouding your judgment. What follows are eleven of the best strategies that successful people use in these moments.” == == == == Stay sharp and stay safe

I think being in TWI is like being in a toxic relationship. It proved to be a one-sided relationship - something very bad and draining to my intellectual, emotional, physical, social, and financial health. It’s been some 34 years since I left the cult and have come to realize that TWI is like a parasite.... It needs the life, money and energy of followers – this is a one-sided relationship and by far outweighs whatever the cult supposedly provides its followers. A cult needs people – it depends on them for its very survival…I think cult leaders want to have a lot of power over followers to properly manage their “resources” and ensure that no talent, energy, money…whatever is wasted on anything outside the cult. Annio, that Terror, Love and Brainwashing book by Alexandra Stein sounds interesting – I’ve put it on my wish list to check out sometime – thanks for mentioning it.

It’s a weird cruel sham to have followers think that The Way International is “dedicated to setting before people the astonishing accuracy and practicality of God’s Word” ( from TWI's website )…how they continue to ignore and cover-up the excessive moral depravity of wierwille and others is mind-boggling! Yet consider the fallout from the Penn State child sex abuse scandal (see links below). That is how the world - not way-world, but the real world – reacted to that scandal. To use wierwille’s own words from PFAL against him and his legacy (The Way International) there’s got to be something wrong with our scale of values. How does this bull$hit continue to live on? …the perpetual idolizing of wierwille…occasionally putting another coat of whitewash on the life of wierwille…enjoying the dividends of hypocrisy – money and getting to lord it over others. That’s why The Way International strives to remain a world unto itself – God forbid its hypocrisy should come to light. God forbid they should be treated or understood any differently than Jerry Sandusky, Harvey Weinstein, Jeffrey Epstein, Larry Nassar. Wikipedia - Penn State child sex abuse scandal CNN - facts of Penn State Scandal

That’s a great point on how wierwille and company would flip flop values. Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!...Isaiah 5:20 ESV I’ve mentioned a few time before how wierwille showed the dog-porno flick to our Family corps - as he had done with many other corps in special "teaching sessions", saying he had the “spiritual maturity” to handle it and even suggesting that “spiritual maturity” is something we should aspire to…I don’t imagine they’ll ever have a corps night where they all get online with Grease Spot to learn how to handle such “devilish” things…Bless Patrol might have to be put on high-alert for folks attempting to escape.