waysider

I remember W@tk!ns from FLO. (He was FLO3 ) He and the Mrs. were house leaders their second year. He was in charge of prison outreach for Ohio and she was in charge of childrens fellowships for Ohio. They got lots and lots of preferential treatment and really knew how to milk the system. There was a lot of resentment of them by the FLO4s because, while the W@tk!ns were treated like royalty, the rest of us were treated like serfs. I'm not a bit surprised to learn of the "double dipping". There are other FLO here who may agree or disagree with that assessment. I'm just stating my personal opinion. Sorry---Guess that doesn't have anything to do with CA.

LCM must have lost sight of one of the most critical bits of information he needed to make such a move.------It was all a scam to start with. VPW, on the other hand, was quite aware of that when he "fired" the first corps.

It's an Elephant Graveyard. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant%27s_graveyard Elephants, by the way, live in matriarchal societies.

"I did not go to Woodstock----------I might not go again." Alex Bevan doing the John Bassett tune, Hessler Street.

Buying favors from God. Is it really any more complicated than that?

Maybe it's just me. Sometimes I see a post that's written almost entirely in one color ink, such as blue, and my mind wants to pass it right by. Kinda like a bad wreck on the freeway that I really have no desire to even glance at. I guess these old eyes just don't want to be bothered with the strain these days.

Buster B Jones

This is why, on the "WOW--Success" thread, I said that I felt like the WOW program was a failure. It didn't create a core base of long term "investors". Wierwille's actions clearly demonstrate that he was keenly aware of where to place his financial priorities. He started teaching the tithe at a very early stage of the ministry's inception. That's why I think it was a scam from day-one and not just an honest effort that went astray. I honestly don't think he lost any sleep worrying what might happen when he was gone.

Pond I'm not quite sure what you mean by this: I think if each individual can not control their own thoughts what happens next? what or who does then? waysider speaks about mental illness being a issue well I think many of these very real problems begin with not being able to redirect their thoughts even as a child never learning how to self calm find peace in chaos etc.. no not blaming the parents but the chemical imbalance has to come from some where and it isn't a birth defect as if a person has the inability to manufacture the chemicals it is the imbalance is shown after most often many years of issues within the mind. the cause and effect is not straight forward if you will. Are you suggesting that people cause themselves to suffer from depression by virtue of uncontrolled thoughts? Certainly it's true that people can become depressed when they find themselves in overwhelming circumstances. This is called "situational depression". However, when the offending situation is removed, the depression will usually dissipate. On the other hand, there are people who suffer from depression that doesn't seem to be related to any specific situation or conditions. There is strong evidence that such people may have a genetic disposition to the condition. It's a disease that lies below the surface, waiting to rear its head. Here's an analogy that may help. Suppose you get chickenpox as a child. Chickenpox is caused by a virus. In due time, you recover completely from the chickenpox but the virus that caused it remains in your body. It goes into a dormant state. Later in life, for some unknown reason, that virus may decide to awaken and manifest itself as shingles. Your mental state may indeed adversely contribute to your susceptibility. It is known that stress can act as a trigger for shingles. Now, the analogy that I'm drawing here is that some people may be genetically predisposed to developing clinical depression just as a person who has had chickenpox is predisposed to developing shingles. With depression, this is especially true if the two generations before them were afflicted with it. That doesn't necessarily mean it will absolutely affect them. However, if certain conditions present themselves, the disease may decide to rear its ugly head. No one is really sure what those conditions are but they seem to be directly related to certain chemical imbalances in the brain. Perhaps stress serves to intensify those imbalances. But the point is, similar to the way a dormant virus causes shingles, the conditions that predispose a person to depression may also be lying dormant and, in fact, may already be present at birth.

A lot of the music from the 1950s "borrowed" from a common format. You can't, however, just slap some words on and pretend you wrote it.

Back in "the good old days" (nyuk, nyuk, nyuk), people who were moving up the leadership ladder had a tendency to mimic VP's idiosyncrasies, such as his quirky pronunciations, exaggerated facial expressions and machismo posturing. In essence, they became mini-VPs. Whether they did this intentionally or not is a whole 'nother kettle of fish-sticks. I'm not singling out any particular individual in this observation. On some sort of subconscious level, I think we automatically accepted them as good guys by virtue of similarity. Of course, at that time, we associated similarity with VP as a good thing. There was a guy in Cleveland (Bill Mc) who had a style that was the antithesis of VP's. People came in droves to hear him speak because of the message he conveyed, not because he was charismatic. (because he wasn't) So I guess what I'm saying is that sometimes you have to distinguish between the song itself and the arrangement to evaluate things in perspective. A terrible song can sound great with a good arrangement and the inverse is true as well.

Another aspect of this subject that deserves consideration is the existence of various pathologies, such as clinical depression. In The Way, we were given the example of a glassful of muddy water. Supposedly, as you introduce clear water into a glass of cloudy solution, it will incrementally displace the muddy water until you eventually have a glass of clear water. It's not entirely untrue, of course, but much too broad an approach for many situations. In Way World, one size fits all. But, life's problems often require complex solutions. People who have chemical imbalances are simply not going to recover by using only the "muddy glass of water" technique. What about Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Is it a chemical imbalance? Current information seems to suggest there may be a link. http://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/ho...nxiety/133.html What are some common obsessions? The following are some common obsessions: * Fear of dirt or germs * Disgust with bodily waste or fluids * Concern with order, symmetry (balance) and exactness * Worry that a task has been done poorly, even when the person knows this is not true * Fear of thinking evil or sinful thoughts * Thinking about certain sounds, images, words or numbers all the time * Need for constant reassurance * Fear of harming a family member or friend People who suffer from OCD are probably not going to respond satisfactorily from the "good thought in/bad thought out" system by itself. Encouraging someone to practice this method alone, when what they really need is professional intervention, is doing them and those around them a great disservice.

Maybe they were including the turtles in the pond.

The Ford Brothers

What great pictures. It all brings back so many wonderful memories as though they happened yesterday.

The cited link is not about watching the news or crime shows. It's about hiding your head in the sand and refusing to deal with your thoughts honestly and openly. There's a fine line between focusing excessively on negatives and facing reality. Only you can say where that line is. Here's an excerpt from the link: Do not masturbate. If you masturbate, you probably entertain sinful fantasies at the same time. Although masturbation is not explicitly forbidden in the Scriptures, the thoughts that usually accompany it are. Do not escape into a fantasy life. Determine that, with God’s help, you will stop. But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matthew 5:28). Sometimes people have orgasms in their sleep. If that happens to you, don't feel condemned. However, if you have sexually immoral dreams, ask God to replace them with pure dreams. This is contrary to the way a normal healthy body works. How do you counsel a normal teenager with such advise? You simply can't tell them that their normal, healthy "sex dreams" are immoral and wrong. (but don't feel condemned) Nor should you be telling them to repress them in favor of "pure dreams". And I don't mean to seem as though I've singled this one item out as the focal point. It's not. It's just exemplifies the type of mind set this article is advocating. The point I'm making is that, while it's good advise to avoid dwelling on life's negatives, (Medical science is filled with studies of how worry and stress can adversely affect your health) It's not good advise to live in a world of self delusion. This link seems to be suggesting the adherence of the same kind of self delusion that left us all so vulnerable to blind obedience and control by people who didn't have our best interests at heart when we were in TWI. But I could be wrong---That's just my opinion.

Straight out of the Renewed Mind class as well as Orientalisms. This is dangerous stuff when misapplied. This was used extensively in The Way to discourage people from speaking out about things they saw that didn't measure up. If you saw something you knew was wrong, YOU were the one who was at fault for not renewing your mind and allowing the adversary to trick you into thinking evil of your brother or sister. Admitting you had negative thoughts was the same as admitting spiritual weakness. That's why, in Fellow Laborers, it was imperative to NEVER discuss any doubts you had about the way the program was being run with anyone you didn't trust completely. While I agree that it's not healthy to spend one's time dwelling on "negatives", sometimes facing the negatives head on is exactly what needs to be done.

It's certainly a telling tale that the charisma of one twisted man could have such a far reaching impact.

I don't think he would give a rat's butt one way or the other. He set out to build an MLM that he could milk for the rest of his life and that's exactly what he did.

Purple Anemones

Hey there, Frame57 Welcome to GSC. First latte is on the house.

Temptation

Kristine Jackson

Here's the one that was posted. Here are several other ROA vids. http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type...roa+76&aq=f

Anyone using wireless equipment? You may want to take a peak at THIS