waysider

You two crack me up BIG HUG goes here

Here's a guy with 104 tunes in youtube!! Give him a listen. http://www.youtube.com/user/Fretkillr

When I first became involved with The Way, I was 21 years old. I had a job, a car, an apartment and a pretty active life in the "hippie"/arts community. Granted, my job svcked, my car was falling apart, my apartment was in the ghetto and my hippie connections were part of a network I hoped would get me into the entertainment industry. Still, I wasn't a pimple faced high school kid who didn't know up from down. Fast forward to PLAF(The Wonder Class). Suddenly I was surrounded by people who, for the most part, were younger and lived at home in the 'burbs with Mom and Dad. These became my new peers as I shunned my previous associations. The prevailing thought amongst them was that sex outside of marriage was "off The Word". Thus, my life became a life of celibacy which lasted the first 5 or 6 years of my TWI involvement. Not that I was ever the kind of guy who had women throwing themselves at me anyway. Still, it was a departure from the norm for me. Based on the teachings of the day and behavior of the other local believers, I felt that this was a TWI sanctioned lifestyle. It's ironic, really, to think of that and realize what was really going on behind the scenes. There's more to the story, of course, but that's all I care to reveal at the moment. Anyone else have any enlightening embarrassing musings to share along these lines?

A Letter Of Recommendation from Bealzabub.

Back in the days when I was of a belief that homosexuality was caused by a devil spirit, as was taught in TWI, I was always very cautious about what I might say in their presence.(Might be talkin' to a devil spirit, dontcha know? Can't ask them for advise on anything because that would be revealing your weaknesses to a devil spirit.) That was then---This is now. Why should it be any business of mine what a coworker does in their own bedroom? (I say coworker because so many of us spend more time with our coworkers than our family members or aquaintances in general) So to answer your question, why should I treat a homosexual any differently than a heterosexual? Follow "The Golden Rule" and things seem to go a lot smoother in this old life. Every belief system seems to have a version of it. It shouldn't be hard to find.

That might be it but I'm not sure.

In the late 1970's when a friend of mine told me armed thugs came to his house and demanded he stop speaking out against The Way, I was confused. On one hand, I believed him because he was a man of integrity that I respected. On the other hand, I wondered; what could possibly be going on that called for such drastic measures? Surely, I thought, there must be some really "deep" spiritual meaning here that I was missing. I told several people and was criticized for even suggesting there might be something to it. Hindsight sure is a strange thing.

Hi, Wing Re: Hope Yes, the group was out of Columbus.(Or thereabouts) They consisted of John M3zzerzchmit and Larry & Marianne Sh!cks, though there was a host of other believers who worked on it. I still have the LP and listen to it from time to time. Good stuff, for sure. I don't know any production details but I know it was not recorded in a TWI facility. Re: The Quartet. I remember quite well seeing them perform at a "Public Ex." (promotional meeting aimed at selling PLAF(The Wonder Class) in Columbus in the late '70's or early '80's. They were very talented. This was at a time when there was a big push to recruit newbies from the Black Community. They opened and closed their show with Celebration with the lyrics changed to make them "more accurate". <_< They sang to prerecorded tracks. We used to call that technique "tape-overs". Even though I can still picture them and hear them like it was yesterday, I, too, am at a loss for their name. It will probably come to me at 3am. LOL Re: Independent projects. That's a good point about Wierwille not wanting to share the limelight with anyone. Perhaps that was coupled with a desire to profit financially? Either way, I don't see his actions being those of someone whose chief concern was to spread The Gospel.

One of the most despicable things taught in TWI was that suicide is caused by devil spirit possession. Any of life's complex problems were always reduced to some idiotically simplistic explanation. You say you are depressed?---devil spirit. You say you have an alcohol problem?---devil spirit. You say have cancer?---devil spirit. And on and on the list goes. Yes, I have my own "suicide incident" that I have shared here. In my opinion, TWI was culpable (but this thread isn't the place to discuss it.) People don't need teachings and scriptures and explanations at a time like this. They need to know that people care about them and about helping them cope. They need for people to help with the very real physical tasks that come with the situation such as sorting through belongings, financial obligations, and so on. Let them grieve for as long as they need to. Sometimes that's forever. There is no magic formula that can produce all the answers.

The life of the ministry The success of an MLM is in the twig. is dependent on the base of the pyramid.

If this is the same article I am remembering, it contains a quote from the mother of one of the "Groovy Christians". (Chris L.,I think.) Speaking about her son's new found enthusiastic pursuit, she said something like, "Drugs I understand but this is just creepy."

Waltz For Debby

4 bucks----Ohio My son asked me the other day what it cost when I started driving. It sure made me feel old when I heard myself say, "25 cents a gallon." :(

Hello, aball001 Welcome to the cafe. Yes, there have been several threads that deal specifically with believing. You can find them using the search feature. I even started one a while ago called "It happened to me" or something like that. It's an open invitation for people to discuss incidents that specifically demonstrated the "law" of believing at work. In other words, state your anecdote and show how it is directly connected to the "law" of believing. If it (the "law" of believing) is really valid, one would suppose there wouldn't be enough cyberspace to contain it. The thread, however, died a rather quick and lackluster death. Anyhow, I hope you stick around awhile. First cup of coffee is on the house.

The water does not even have to be raw sewage water to contain coliform bacteria. It's getting harder and harder to find water that doesn't have at least some level of contamination. A newly drilled well has to be tested for contamination before it can be used. The typical method of testing is to take a sample and have a reputable lab grow a culture. Of course, if there is no bacteria, there will be no culture grown. It takes about 3 days for the process. If the water is deemed contaminated, the well must be disinfected and tested again. If that fails, too, your options are to drill another well( Which is costly and will likely yield the same results if the source of the coliform is the aquifer it draws from) or disinfect the water, post-well, with a variety of approved methods such as chlorination, ozone treatment, UV lights, etc. Yep, that simple country living that is so desirable is not without its drawbacks.

Sorry, Y. Didn't mean to neglect Good Seed. That's the thing, though, there were probably lots of other groups out there who would have fit nicely with a a plan that was geared toward spreading The Gospel but they didn't fit into VPW's centralized business plan. And, that's what it was, a business plan. I remember approaching someone with some material I had written in my pre-twi days. I already owned the copyrights. There was no interest in even listening to them to see if they had any musical value. HQ could have never controlled them so what would be the point of investigating them?

And this, I think, was at the real heart of the PV fiasco. Paul had his own product (and a good one at that.) Wierwille wasn't interested in any sort of internal competition that took money from his own coffers, Had he been motivated by a genuine interest to have people come to a knowledge of "The Word", as he pretended to be, he would have welcomed and endorsed the independents like Selah, Timothy, Hope, etc. I'm sure I left some out because there were probably lots of others whose names and works were intentionally obscured so as not to detract from the attention focused on the "official" bands. I want to add that this is a statement regarding VPW's motivations, not a criticism of anyone who was involved in the "official" groups. There were some really good musicians in those groups whose motivations were genuine.

I don't think VPW had much use for independent projects that weren't generating income for TWI.

This is from Wiki. Other religions Aside from Christians, other religious groups also have been observed to practice some form of theopneustic glossolalia. It is perhaps most commonly in Paganism, Shamanism, and other mediumistic religious practices.[20] Glossolalia was exhibited by the renowned ancient Oracle of Delphi, whereby a priestess of the god Apollo (called the Pythia) speaks in unintelligible utterances, supposedly through the spirit of Apollo in her.[citation needed] Certain Gnostic magical texts from the Roman period have written on them unintelligible syllables such as "t t t t n n n n d d d d d..." etc. It is conjectured that these may be transliterations of the sorts of sounds made during glossolalia. The Coptic Gospel of the Egyptians also features a hymn of (mostly) unintelligible syllables which is thought to be an early example of Christian glossolalia. In the nineteenth century, Spiritism was developed by the work of Allan Kardec, and the phenomenon was seen as one of the self-evident manifestations of spirits. Spiritists argued that some cases were actually cases of xenoglossia (from Greek,xenos, stranger; and glossa, language. When one speaks in a language unknown to him). However, the importance attributed to it, as well as its frequency, has decreased significantly. Some present-day spiritists regard the phenomenon pointless, as it does not convey any intelligible message to those present.[who?] Glossolalia has also been observed in the Voodoo religion of Haiti,[21] as well as in the Hindu Gurus and Fakirs of India.[22][23][24]

When one speaks in tongues, it actually triggers changes in brain wave activity. This has been demonstrated scientifically in controlled laboratory settings. Here is one sample reference, though there are many if one is inclined to search for them. http://seedmagazine.com/news/2006/11/brain..._speaking_i.php In essence, when one speaks in tongues, the brain temporarily suspends the activity that is needed to maintain a sense of self control and objective, critical thinking. It facilitates the process of self delusion. Is it any wonder VPW was so adamant that we SIT much in our private prayers? The more you SIT, the less time you will spend in rational thought. Yep, keep speaking in tongues, kids. That way you wont think to peek behind the curtain and see the reality of the situation. In addition, Wierwille also taught in the Advanced Class that SIT daily was an absolute necessity for receiving revelation. (Page 10 of the AC syllabus for anyone interested.) Was there anyone amongst us who did NOT want to receive revelation? Yet, Wierwille cited(don't remember which class) an example of a man who supposedly was able to operate revelation merely by his intense ability to operate the so-called "law" of believing. No evidence was given that the man had EVER spoken in tongues. Of course, the incident itself may well have been one of VPW's little "stowries" that he invented to try to prove "believing" works. I don't think Wierwille knew much about the scientific aspect of it but I do think that at some point he realized (perhaps on a subconscious level) he could exercise control over our critical thinking and our behavior as it related to serving his agenda by insisting we MUST speak in tongues much.

My grandson Cletus(That's his name) wanted me to pass along the following message. ----------------------------------Happy Birthday!!!!----------------------------------------

May I point out that donations, financial sharing and volunteering time to perform services are not what is typically being referred to when people talk about a "tithe", which is considered a REQUIRED contribution. Yes, I know that, technically, a tithe is 10%. I think that fact is somewhat extraneous to the discussion. Hence, "tithing" and "giving", in general, should probably be examined separately and independent of each other.

I think I was in about 8th grade when that song was released . If I said any more I'd just be tellin' on myself.

Great stuff, Mr. Miller Wonderful Dobro work and just the right amount of bass.

One of the more common exercises used in improvisational classes is speaking in an unknown language. I'm sure many people have seen this sort of thing on TV improv. shows and sitcoms. Sometimes the director will say something like, "OK, now let me hear that scene in Italian." It's just not that unusual. I posed this very thing to TWI leadership when I was a Way "newbie". I was told that SIT/TIP was impossible to fake and God would tell leadership if someone was trying to do this. Yet, I know for a fact that it WAS done for quite awhile by someone I know personally and no one was ever suspicious,as far as I know. Now, I'm NOT saying that such a thing doesn't or couldn't exist. What I AM saying is that I think what we learned about it in TWI is misguided and off the mark.