waysider

"............ the 6th corps was all "thrown out" and had to come groveling back before the corps-program-doors opened back up." For those who may be wondering what that was all about: It was scripted, orchestrated, staged, coordinated or whatever word you find appropriate. It was all a show........They did they same thing in FellowLaborers, at the same time. It was calculated indoctrination, designed to instill obedience. And, they wanted you to think it happened as a result of revelation.

No issues. I'm just saying they typify the type of organization that might be discussed in this forum. They are a mini clone of the early Way movement. They have their own W.O.W program, L.E.A.D., hitchhiking and a mini corps type program, complete with the same set of principles used by the Way Corps. I imagine there is a nostalgic flavoring that some might find appealing. Oh, and displaying the Wierwille name probably generates some attraction, as well.

"This forum is to discuss offshoot ministries whose histories can reasonably be tied to The Way International." S.O.W.E.R.S. Nothing to discuss at the moment, just tossing this out as an example.

"Seems like this con came full circle.....when wierwille died of cancer, having taught in his advanced (cough, cough) classes that cancer is a devil spirit, a life of its own. So, was wierwille possessed when he died?" You have 2 options here. There may be more. These 2 come to mind. Option (1): We were following the teachings of a possessed man. Option (2): All that devil possession stuff was hogwash..... So, then, what else might have been hogwash?.... It's a gen-u-whine dilemma, I tells ya.

Fear is what gives rise to the fight or flight instinct. When we ignored that, during our time in The Way, we cast ourselves into unhealthy situations, such as allowing ourselves to be lorded over by people who didn't have our best interests at heart. For as much talk as we heard about listening to that small inner voice, you would think we should have known better. Ironically, however, we were taught to ignore the REAL inner voice and wait for "revelation". People literally died trying to follow that advise. Fear could have spared them from death.

This is just my opinion. The money from the classes was like icing on the cake, chump change, if you will. Wierwille's real goal was to establish a loyal following of believers who would ABS 10, 15, 20% of their income, payday after payday after payday. They could have given the classes away for free and still amassed a fortune.

"Not sure I could share this anywhere else, who would understand?" And that, my friend, is what GSC is all about.

"......mature leadership who handled matters of life and living from a broad spectrum of experience (like an Edd!e and D0nna Doers@m)." They ran the last twig I was a part of. Genuinely good people. I have nothing but good things to say about them.

If angels spoke in a language that was not a human language, it would suggest, though not prove, there is contradiction in the Bible. In the records where they spoke to humans, the humans understood them. So, either the humans understood angelic language or the angels were speaking in a human language. It allows for the possibility, though the possibility is slim and unnecessarily confusing, in my opinion.

It's the spiritual equivalent of "Take 2 aspirin and call me in the morning."

Lots of things are written in the Bible. Some are true, some are not. Some that are blatantly erroneous are contorted to make them appear to say the opposite of what is written. If that wasn't the case, there would be no need for a doctrinal forum. We could simply say "It's written in the Bible" and leave it at that. *color and size adjusted by poster for emphasis.*

Yes, it played a major role in how people responded and reacted to session #12. If their reaction was less than desirable, immediate intervention ensued. Continued failure to perform at a level that conformed to the social norm almost always resolved in a predictable manner.

Yep. Manipulators. They figure out which buttons to push to get what they want.

And, we burned a lot of bridges behind us so we couldn't simply stop and go back. We cut off our friends, families, support systems. That's something outsiders will often fail to understand when they wonder why we didn't just quit and return to life as it was.

My analogy appears to be a bit weak. By "soap" I meant the so-called more abundant life. The PFAL class was supposed to be the opportunity to have the "soap". Instead of selling people the soap we sold them the opportunity. Like with Axway, you're not really selling people the product, you're selling dealerships. edit: Darn grammar rules keep getting in the way.

Except we weren't really selling the "soap". What we were selling was the OPPORTUNITY to sell the soap. I sell you the opportunity. You sell someone else the opportunity. He sells the opportunity to yet another person and so on. We were so busy selling the opportunity, we forgot all about the soap. edit: bold and emphasis added.

So, a man dies and goes to Hell. Upon arriving, he is greeted by the Devil. The Devil proceeds to tell him his punishment is to read GreaseSpot Cafe, 24/7/365. "Oh, that's not so bad", he says to himself. Then he clicks on the site and finds there is only one forum.....Doctrinal.

If I speak English to a group of people who only know German, no man understands. Does that mean I didn't really speak a language?

This was referenced in post #256.

OOPS! Duplicated Bolshevik's reference.

It's all cosmic, man. Fer shure

I'm sorry you feel that way though I understand why you might feel unwelcome. Personally, I hope you stay. Everyone's opinion is valued, though many times not agreed upon. I think there is a certain type of stubbornness that comes with the whole TWI experience package. After all, that's what we were taught. Be stubborn. Resist any deviation from the program. Having done all, STAND! ("Get With The Program" probably resonates with your military background.) This site is intended to expose the dark side of an organization we were all led to believe was "special". It wasn't/isn't. It's simply another cult, much like the thousands that have come to exist before it and the thousands that are likely to follow. We come from a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences. Our opinions on any given matter are as varied as night is from day. It's like trying to solve a giant jigsaw puzzle, only to discover someone has hidden some of the pieces. ("What happened to me?" "Why do I feel this way?" "Did I really see what I think I saw?" "Was I the only one this happened to?".... That kind of thing) Here, we try to find those pieces and put together a little bit more of the puzzle. We don't always succeed. Hopefully, the puzzle becomes just a little bit more discernible, though, as time moves on. As it has been said, "A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do." If that means you need to move on, then so be it. I've enjoyed our discourses.

CLICK

Thanks, W.W. I'm in agreement with your version. I've adjusted my original posting.