waysider

Chapter 1 "It was the best of times cults, it was the worst of times cults, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way..."

Beat The Reaper...definitely near the top, as game shows go.

That's pretty near an exact quote from Harry (He's not MY uncle) Wierwille.

A lifetime of learning is what I had in mind.

Needs-basis doctrine was nothing more than a device The Way used to rationalize their exploitation practices.

"College education, just like "Jesus", has a PLAN for YOUR LIFE!!! To many people, getting a college education is this 'holy grail', without which, life has no meaning, home has no harmony, and there's no way to separate truth from error. Sound familiar? Not everybody lives in that vacuum. Might be an esthetically pleasing vacuum, but IMO there are just as many 'locusts' there." College is, indeed, where many learn skills that will benefit them in their chosen vocation. If one stops at that, though, one will ultimately experience disappointment because many of the skills being learned today will be obsolete in the near future. That is why it's important to understand that college is a time and place where one learns the skills that are necessary for an ongoing learning experience. In essence, college is where you "learn how to learn". Everyone is different, of course, but, for most, that lesson is better learned at an early age rather than a later age. Too often, for whatever reason, people reject the concept of "learning to learn" and plod ahead with whatever feels comfortable. They continue to play in the sandbox, completely ignoring the sliding board and swing set and depriving themselves of heightened experiences. It's their choice.

Make sure it's the proper fork....Wouldn't want to violate Christian Etiquette or something.

There could be other options but I think the answer lies somewhere in those three.

Who said he was doing anything criminal?

How many couch reupholstery jobs would it have taken, in 1950, to realize a $1M profit? Now give it all away and do it again..... I'm just sayin'.

Devoting one's attention to PFAL materials, exclusively, is the essence of Wierwille's challenge. The actual length of time is largely immaterial .

Something the average, local believer may not have known is that Wierwille had "enforcers" (for lack of a better word) on staff who would pay personal visits to dissidents who became too vocal. Their mission was to remind said persons that bad things sometimes happen to those who oppose the one true household. Am I being euphemistic enough?

One moment, you're a freewheelin' hippie, playing guitar in the park and singing songs about Jesus, jabbering away in the tongues of some ancient civilization from a spiritual world beyond. Next thing you know, you're a briefcase toting, deadline conscious, party line quoting corporate crusader for God, obsessing over sales quotas and taking scant time to look after your own well-being. You look in the mirror one day with a sense of bewilderment and think to yourself, 'What the hell happened here and how and when did it happen?" Well, maybe some version of the same thing happens to plumbers and doctors and taxi drivers and cowboy trick riders in the rodeo. I don't know. I just know it happened to me.

Hey there, SS. Nice to "see" you.

I must have missed the part about going to boot camp when I was signing "the green card". Your analogy is weak.

I was threatened with expulsion from a program once, for non-compliance to a demand that was ludicrous. My wife, at the time, was zealous for the program. I thought about pulling us both out of the program. Instead, I decided to conform to leaderships' demands and never told her about the incident. It only made matters worse because, then, she was puzzled by my change in attitude. I can't say much more than that without betraying confidentiality. Even with the best of plans, you just never know where life is going to lead you. edit: The point I'm making here is that sometimes you do things you don't want to do (like stay in The Way) for someone else's happiness.

"Exclusion" is the key word here. He wanted us to intellectually "exclude" anything other than what he recommended. .

I agree, the sexual escapades were just the tip of the iceberg. His seduction went far beyond the mere physical implications. One needn't look too far to find people still psychologically mesmerized by his seductive skills. edit: When I say "mere physical implications", I don't mean that in any way that might minimize the seriousness of that aspect.

Definition: Grooming - Grooming is the predatory act of maneuvering another individual into a position that makes them more isolated, dependent, likely to trust, and more vulnerable to abusive behavior. Description: Grooming is a insidious predatory tactic, utilized by abusers. Grooming is practiced by Narcissists, Antisocial predators, con-artists and sexual aggressors, who target and manipulate vulnerable people for exploitation. Child grooming is the deliberate act of establishing an emotional bond with a child, to lower the child's resistance. Child grooming can result in the minor falling victim to physical, sexual and emotional abuse, or specifically, to manipulate children into participating in slave labor, prostitution, and/or the production of child pornography. Adult grooming is correspondent to child grooming and applies to any situation where an adult is primed to allow him or herself to be exploited or abused. While it is a common assumption that grooming is only practiced on the very young, identical emotional and psychological processes are commonly used to abuse or exploit adults the elderly, and those with compromised mental facilities. An predator will identify and engage a victim and work to gain the target’s trust, break down defenses, and manipulate the victim until they get whatever it is they are after. Overt attention, verbal seduction (flattery / ego stroking), recruitment, physical isolation, charm, gift-giving, normalizing, gaslighting, secrecy, and threats are all hallmarks of grooming. Abusers who groom their victims often claim to have a special connection with the abused. The so- called connection might be emotional, intellectual, sexual, spiritual, or all of the above. This is often backed up by the predator echoing back part of the target's own background or story, altered to fit the groomer’s back-story, in order to confirm the connection. In order to abuse or exploit another person without fear of discovery, a sexual predator or con artist will frequently condition their intended victim to keep secrets for them. When building this bond of trust, an abuser may share seemingly personal or private information, and then swear the victim to secrecy. The victim is made to believe that they are being trusted with something of value, before being asked to share something of value with his/her abuser. Abusers use shared secrets to bind their victims to them. By degrees, the target is gradually lured in to revealing private information, giving up money, property or sexual favors, or permitting /engaging in inappropriate, unsafe, or illegal behaviors. • The victim is often drawn in to being a "co-conspirator” (also known as forced teaming) with his or her abuser. Eventually, the bond of secrecy is nearly always reinforced with threats, shaming and guilt to keep the victim silent about his or her shared crimes or misdeeds. SOURCE

Typically, when we think of sexual grooming, we think of a situation or relationship that involves an adult and a child. Perhaps this is why people will sometimes be reluctant to acknowledge that what they were seeing in The Way was, in fact, sexual grooming, even though it was an adult/adult version. First, he (VPW) set himself up as being trustworthy and authoritative. Then, he engaged in desensitizing techniques through his stories and physical contact. In addition, he swore his victims to secrecy and implied that dire consequences would ensue (and sometimes did) if they were to ever reveal "their little secret". Losing The Way is a book that offers first hand testimony of one of his victims. We have also heard first hand testimony from posters who were present at "women only" corps night-owls where Wierwille described to those present how he had fondled his own daughter to teach her a fatherly lesson in sexual awareness. We have no way to ascertain with certainty whether or not he ever actual carried out what he claimed to have done. We can be certain, however, that he did make these claims. There are several first hand witnesses who have posted here to that effect. In retrospect, I can tell you, first hand, that during my time in FellowLaborers, I saw similar things take place. We were never supposed to talk about such things among ourselves or even to allow ourselves to think that something might be amiss. To do so would be considered "thinking evil of your brother" and a definite indication of un-renewed mind and spiritual weakness. Besides, there was always the remote possibility that you were simply misinterpreting the circumstances. Looking back, though, that was not the case.

Consider, as well, that he encouraged us to "put away" all extraneous, secular materials. At the very least, he was suggesting we initiate a self imposed form of isolation.

I distinctly remember him saying this or something very similar. ("Put away the newspapers, put away the magazines, put away the periodicals....study PFAL materials.")....... (session 12?) I took the class that was filmed in 1967. Maybe it got changed when the LCM version hit the market.