T-Bone

Excerpt from The Cult Starter Kit Crash-course in personality make-over: become that charming narcissistic megalomaniac that you’ve always wanted to be! Always remember: things are to be used and people are to be loved for how you can use them.

funny...and so true great points Junior CS & Waysider...i guess to add specificity to this thread it could inform folks how to start an abusive cult properly...and that's the difference - between something that is bad for you and something that enhances your life....is it parasitic or is it beneficial? does it exploit your life / resources or does it add / improve the quality of your life / resources? that's another thing about trolling for candidates for your next class - you are told not to waste your time with people who don't want to or can't cough up money for the class...imagine if TWI would have said if you're not completely satisfied with the results from taking our class - we'll give you your money back....or a new student using the strategy of Wimpy on Popeye - I'll gladly pay you for the class after I become prosperous from all the benefits I'll receive from the class.

Cult starting tip Number Two: People generally like the feeling that they belong to something exclusive; that’s why it’s important to establish a secret handshake or some unique salutation – like “greet each other with a holy fart” for example. It will also help to identify unbelievers. It is also wise to set up protocols at the start of your cult. Using the above example of holy farts, you should declare that fart lighting (pyro-flatulence) should be reserved for introducing the cult leader or other big stinkers. And while we’re talking about this particular greeting you should also issue a directive that would tell followers to mark and avoid any person in attendance that actually lets one slip out (aka dropping a deuce, manifesting # 2, ectoplasm of the drawers). Illustrating the above example is a home fellowship coordinator introducing France’s Country Coordinator Rev. Toot of De Loom:

Cult starting tip # 148: stumped on ideas for what your cult should be about? Why not first join an existing cult! Splinter groups and offshoots are underrated enterprises.

Order the Cult starter kit – call now, (smooth) operators are standing by Call in the next 10 millennium and you’ll also receive: Crash-course in personality make-over: become that charming narcissistic megalomaniac that you’ve always wanted to be! Lessons in Lockbox Logistics: learn the complex operation of hiding bodies, crimes, misdemeanors, witnesses, and more! Buzzword Generator app: puts you in the driver seat of any conversation! Original Research Sampling Techniques: who thought of it first? Who cares!?!? Plagiarism smagiarism. Autographed copy of “How I Did It” by Elmer Gantry. Now how much do you think a minimum required donation would be for all of the above? Well, the next caller who really believes they can’t start a cult without all of this $hit stuff will also receive the book “How to Sin Against Friends and Compromise Scruples”.

Mark and a void

Hi Ex70sH, I really appreciate the honesty in your post. And I can relate to what you said about coming to Grease Spot to read of the struggles of others. When it comes to my beliefs I have to admit there’s so much in a state of flux – but as weird as it sounds that’s something I’ve grown accustomed to. I’m a technician by trade – old school variety – and work with wires and components, programs and checklists – so I’m more of a basic nuts and bolts / hardware technician. If you ask me – I think it takes a lot of faith to work in IT and I’m just not cut out for that. I know just enough IT stuff to get by in the work that I do and on occasion have joked with some coworkers that the operating system of my laptop is Magic – just because there’s so much going on in the background and it becomes too much for me to track and understand. I don’t get into studying theology as much as I used to – for the same reason. There’s so much to track and try to understand. It’s so true what Twinky said about we all have a set of biases. I enjoy checking out Grease Spot for the variety of perspectives. I’m a Christian but there’s an awful lot of questions in my head concerning the faith. But after leaving TWI I no longer get hung up in seeking answers to everything. I strive to be a good technician and sometimes feel I have to triple-check and even quadruple-check some aspect of a project I’m working on – might even call on another tech to check my work. But still things fail…wear out…break…$hit happens…can you tell I tend to think there’s nothing perfect in this life…so we just do the best we can…this might disappoint some folks – but I no longer have this goal of understanding the Bible to the nth degree; I’m really on a pragmatic kick now and often that’s what draws me to Grease Spot. I love to hear what others are doing, thinking, and feeling since they left TWI. Life’s journey is now my overarching project and I enjoy swapping notes with others.

Collateral D, thanks for posting the video…you know, I’ve seen some exciting things in my lifetime…like the birth of our 2 kids – Tonto had them both naturally – praise be to strong women! A few years ago we went to a stargazing party at the McDonald Observatory in Fort Davis, Texas – got to look through a powerful telescope and gaze upon a distant nebula – the birthplace of stars!....watching the video – and what looks like the birth of another TWI offshoot….boring. And Twinky, thanks for your post of highlights and comments – I could only take so much of the video.

great points Chockfull !!!

good to hear all that, BlueCord ! i agree life is infinitely better without TWI - - and a helluva lot simpler too....when we bought our first house - it took awhile for our brains to uncomplicate the process of applying for a home mortgage because of how treacherous and burdensome TWI made it out to be. by the way, i hit 2 drinks in about 3 hours tonight - had 2 large cups of coffee and St Brendan's Irish Cream.....mmmmmmm good! all the best to ya, carry on !

Welcome to Grease Spot, Junior CS Great line But a tad hypocritical for a “church” ! I was in Family Corps 11 but left TWI during our Interim year (or whatever the hell it was called after 2 years of in-residence training); but I’m still flabbergasted whenever I hear of the sordid details from others who have left. Geez Louise, TWI had one hell of a Pharisee Training Program…I’m so glad you’re out – hang in there – we’re all survivors here. The corps principle acquire an in-depth spiritual perception and awareness when “decrypted” pragmatically actually means to achieve the same calloused self-righteous perspective as vp, oblivious to its effect on yourself and others. Maybe there’s something to the phrase “love is blind”. I was so enamored with vp that I never saw through his man-of-gawd façade. I’ve mentioned several times on Grease Spot, the pajama party vp had for the Family Corps one night, showing his favorite porn video – and the most frightening thing that still comes to my mind anytime I recall that night is to realize how powerful their indoctrination process was – for at the time, no alarms of impropriety sounded in my head nor did I hear of anyone else voicing concerns afterwards. I’d like to elaborate on your statement “The Rock was not about God or The Bible for us” – that goes for the whole enchilada! Anything that came from vp was not really about God or the Bible – it was more about how great vp was…First order of business for anyone in TWI who is sick and tired of the repression, confusion, hatemongering, hypocrisy, etc. – they need to address the elephant in the tomb – the sick and depraved legacy of vp.

thanks for keeping Grease Spot alive and well...Tonto and I donated to the cause.

edited - sorry off topic

Yeah, Raf - our family would definitely do that again....I enjoy reading your posts – always exemplary of critical thinking skills in action and imho you have a long suit in honesty – needless to say I’m a big fan – I have that book Thank You for Arguing that Rocky mentioned – great stuff to review occasionally.... Sorry about my attempt at levity on this thread – just couldn’t resist a good set up.

not to sway you one way on another but you can get a laptop that has a CD/DVD read/write drive - of course, you can get an external CD/DVD read/write drive that you can plug into a desktop or laptop

you know...the only bad thing I remember about our Disney cruise was leaving my floating footwear at Castaway Cay Island.

ever had a tough day? sometimes a goofy video can help.

Like WordWolf said it depends on what you want to do with it. Personally I lean towards laptops with Windows 10 operating system. I have a Toshiba Laptop and Tonto has a Sony Laptop. We also have a 2TB Western Digital Network Storage (not only good for storing pictures, video, music, documents, etc. but also we can move files between our two laptops). And just as a matter of efficiency – I’ve learned from some IT folks I really don’t have to do a backup of my operating system anymore (it would take a number of discs just for that!) – what I now do is make a copy of any photos, docs, files, etc. and have just that on my network storage and/or burned on a disc. So in a worst case scenario – I just need to re-install my operating system and then once that’s up and running put the copies of the stored files back on it. I bought our laptops and network storage at Best Buy. I like the portability of a laptop – I do a lot of programming and technical documentation for work (photos, videos, Word docs, PDFs, spreadsheets, software programs for security systems + A/V equipment); for fun, I love messing around with photography and music – again, the portability is nice – I can move laptop from our office to living room or dining area and multitask (watch TV – rip some music CDs – check on email – look at Grease Spot – hang out with the family). I usually go for a brand I’m familiar with; I’ll comparison shop on the Internet and pick the brains of any IT guys I work with too. I’m not an IT guy – I know enough to get by with all that I do…Some of those IT folks have some pretty beefy looking laptops – I mean the keyboard is even the size of one you’d plug into a desktop. As far as sound goes – there’s a lot of options – speaker systems that plug into the PC’s headphones jack – or if your Laptop has Bluetooth – get a wireless speaker system. One of the CEOs I do contract work for gave me a JBL Pulse Bluetooth Speaker for Christmas – you gotta hear Crossroads and Spoonful on that baby and it has a programmable light show to boot! Oh, the colors and trails are far out, man! Whether you go desktop or laptop – Mac or PC (I’m not familiar with Macs – but I do have an iPhone and iPad) – figure out everything you want to do with it before you go shopping at Best Buy or wherever. Once you have that locked in – I’d recommend going with a reputable brand from a store near you. Laptops have come a long way in being just as performance-powerful as desktops - : gude to 2017 17" laptops best gaming laptops

Tremendous insight here, Skyrider ! What a false sense of security I had while in TWI. Trusting that wierwille/TWI had our best interests in mind by keeping us safe and secure from "worldly influences and the Adversary" – is like letting the fox guard the hen house.

I think there are situations where anecdotal evidence may be just as validating as facts or careful study - when it resonates with another person or persons. Take Grease Spot for example. When I first came here - I had already left TWI over differences of doctrine and practice – as well as the various ways my family and I were exploited. Reading about other folks’ experiences – many accounts being similar to my own – resonated with me on several levels…intellectually, emotionally, socially, etc. The validation for me is hey I’m not the only one who felt weird about this or that…I’m not the only one who thought something was seriously wrong. Maybe logic and evidence are not as big a deal in About the Way forum as they are in the doctrinal forum – but maybe that’s because some folks are usually looking for something to relate to or that resonates with them in About the Way forum…maybe not looking to debate or convince somebody of something but instead they are looking for validation (or support) for what they already feel is true.

as physically demanding as the way corps program is - it makes sense the director is a pharmacist - so he can prescribe performance enhancing drugs. just bring your Rx right up to the counter next to the Kool-Aid display

That’s a good point about the indoctrination process; that doesn’t occur with the casual reader….which is another thing that makes me wonder about the credibility of some who come to Grease Spot, making like they’re an outsider – not affiliated with TWI in any way, shape or form – and yet as crazy as this sounds, they rave about the merit of wierwille’s books. Like the person – earlier on this thread who claimed to have a degree in theology – yet deemed some of what they learned in that degreed program was crap compared to wierwille’s books. And on top of that implying they had mastered wierwille’s works - to the point they could reprove TWI leadership who deviated from wierwille’s great “truths”….. By the way – most of the folks that I remember using terms like “mastering PFAL” (wierwille’s books and class) were in the Way Corps. I used terms like that myself when I was in the Way Corps program. I’m not saying that is the only context where phrases like that were used – just saying that even at the highest level of supposedly academic achievement in TWI, “mastering PFAL” was the gold standard of “truth” - - uhm….wierwille’s version of truth that is. I tend to think with such a tenacious grip on wierwille’s stuff from a supposed outsider- that might be a red flag that they are not being upfront with us - but rather indeed they have been indoctrinated through some level of involvement with TWI. On a side note – Waysider, thanks for the link to the Waydale repost – glanced through some of it – and will definitely read it in its entirety later – great stuff on applying critical thinking as you wade through wierwille’s mishmash.

I fail to see the slippery slope you fear so much. I’m not challenging some truth or whatever it is you’re afraid of losing. Hold onto whatever you want. I was responding to your comments about you not being in the way. I was telling you what that experience was like. I survived a cult. I survived the devilish way Bible truths were twisted by a cult to mislead me.

This is a very important point - not to be missed ! You were not in wierwille’s cult. That right there is probably the biggest reason for the HUGE difference between your experience and that of those in wierwille’s cult. As far as wierwille’s books go, you were left up to your own devices – as the saying goes. You had the freedom to pick and choose…what to accept…what to reject…you had the freedom to choose what you wanted to apply – and the freedom of how you would apply it. No one manipulated, deceived, misled, or coerced you into doing anything. Now perhaps this discussion could go around and around all day over wierwille’s books – which is ok - but we would need to get specific on exactly what is of value and what criteria to use to determine that - however I would like to zero in on the point you made at the end – your lack of the cult experience. You see - wierwille’s books are only one part of the cult formula. The other part of the cult formula is the cult leader. The cult leader is the catalyst. In chemistry, the catalyst causes or accelerates a chemical reaction without itself being affected. a catalyst And what was the reaction that wierwille caused or accelerated in loyal followers who studied his books? Among many other insidious mind-screws it was a belief that he – wierwille was THE man of god for our day and time…I was in wierwille’s leadership training program – the way corps. We did not have the option to pick and choose what or how to apply the things in his books. If you did not agree with him you were thrown out ! being committed to a cult – it’s more than just about book learning – more than just information on a page. Now as I look back on my time in the way corps program I understand how plastic or malleable wierwille’s books and even the Bible became to suit his own agenda. That’s the “charm” of a charismatic leader and the “beauty” of group-think (I’m being sarcastic here). I don’t think outsiders praising wierwille’s books intend to be demeaning to former TWI followers – like we’ve ignorantly thrown out the baby with the bath water – discarding something valuable along with something undesirable. I’m not crazy about that idea because it ignores the complexity and individuality of people. Instead of using very broad brush strokes perhaps a pencil with eraser is in order – I find myself re-evaluating things all the time; that’s the freedom of not being in a cult! I can change my mind on a doctrinal position. I may re-think some aspect and decide hey that’s not bathwater…or something I thought wasn’t bathwater – I now think it is. Outsiders and even folks in the general TWI populace who are fascinated with wierwille’s books and his teachings of “the word” should take a look at the very real practical consequence of wierwille’s works. I’ll give links for three important books below – these are real stories by former committed followers who witnessed firsthand how wierwille often justified his abusive and exploitative behavior with pat answers from his own books or even some Bible verse. Losing the Way The Cult That Snapped Undertow