waysider

Meh. After 45 years or so, it's more like watching reruns of an old B-movie. You know the scenes are supposed to be scary but you laugh at them anyway. Like that time you were a kid and tried to do some insane bicycle trick that ended up costing you a bunch of stitches or a broken bone. Thinking about it just makes you chuckle about how naiive you must have been. Thanks for your concern, though.

I'm fascinated, fascinated, I tell you. Pray tell, do expound on the good fruit you've harvested from your own tree. Time may be short, but I don't mind waiting.

(I'll try to be brief so as not to drag this too far astray.) No, it was more similar to the Way Corps, but conducted at the state level. I think the original concept was to make it like satellite versions of the W.C. Many of the elements of the Corps were incorporated into FellowLaborers. It was in-residence "leadership training", intended to last for 2 years. We lived communally in a compound near the state limb headquarters and did support work at Limb HQ. The state limb leader was the presiding figure. It was an intense 24/7 commitment, complete with sleep deprivation, skimpy, group meals, no personal time and a lot of the other features associated with the Way Corps. There were approximately 50 of us and we lived 6 to an apartment. One big difference was that we were NOT allowed to have sponsors. We had to sponsor ourselves by working a fulltime job during the day and doing FellowLaborer work at night. In fact, one requirement (that often got winked at) was that we were also required to sponsor someone in the Corps. I presented a detailed description of FellowLaborer daily life when I started posting here in 2006. There have been a few other posters here from the Ohio program, as well as a couple other state programs. (Kentucky and California or Texas, I think, not really sure) One thing I can tell you is that "believers meetings ", 3 and 4 times a day, can lose their sparkle rather quickly, it you get my drift.

Granted I was never Way Corps, but during my stint in FellowLaborers, I got a generous portion of the same stuff you guys had heaped on your plates. The nasty taste still lingers to this day.

Anybody remember ROA 1976 or 1977? VPW took to the stage at the closing and directed (from the stage) a healing/ministering event. Lots of "Lo Shanta"s, lots of laid on hands, lots of tears and emotion. I vividly remember it for several reasons which may be too personal to share. What I don't remember about it are tales of anyone coming away from it "healed".

Mike Godwin has entered the chat.

Ya know, you could tell me that the moon was made of green cheese and it wouldn't make me dislike you. I just wouldn't believe you.

Soooo...there were no people in The Way capable of love. OKaaaay. Got it.

Like Fantasy Island except it's Fantasy Cornfield. "The gas pumps, Boss, the gas pumps!"

Note to self: Mark all the clears (c) and unclears (u) in my copy of "The Way: Living In Love".

In the first twig I was involved with, there was a young lady, still in high school, who was missing an arm. If I recall correctly, she was born like that. We'll call her Suzie for the sake of simplicity. She was initially attracted to The Way by fellow classmates who told her that complete healing was possible. Now, there was always this undercurrent of "believing" for Suzie's arm to be completely restored. People spoke in tongues for Suzie's arm, cast out "doubting spirits", ministered to her, counceled her on "the law of believing", encouraged her to become more involved in the twig workings. She became more and more frustrated and depressed as time elapsed because her "healing" just wasn't happening. Then, her father caught wind of what was going on and was, to put it mildly, furious. He had spent years teaching her to accept her current condition and to adjust to the realities of life as a disabled person. He forbade her to continue associating with The Way and I never heard from her again. When I look back on my life and reflect on things I'm ashamed of, I have to tell you that this is way up there toward the top of the list. To all the Suzies who crossed my path in The Way, I offer you this humble apology. I surely never meant to hurt anyone.

Maybe it was a combination of both... a man with the ability to swindle, stumbling into unforeseen opportunity.

It's a dilemma for those who have yet to come to this conclusion.

Animals have some sort of instinct that allows them to sense if someone is intent on harming them or doing something they at least perceive as harm. (If you don't believe me, try putting an asthma mask on a cat sometime.) I think humans also have a sense that something may not be quite right. We are, after all, in the least common denominator, animals as well. Maybe that's what it is when we supposedly discern "devil spirits". One huge problem, though, is that we were actively taught to ignore these intuitions because, you know, something, something, natural man, something. Well, cutting to the chase here, this presents a huge dilemma. Either we were following a man who was chock full of "devil spirits" and we couldn't even recognize it or the whole devil spirit thing was a bunch of bovine excrement. Now, If we couldn't trust him to get this stuff right, how can we trust that anything at all he taught us was right? Hence, the dilemma.

Excuse me, Sir. Did you drop this?:... /s

What we should have "gotten right the first time" was recognize that we were being scammed. Woe unto those who haven't learned from the experience.

Cereal killer!

You are what you eat.

Watch over your heart bowels with all diligence, For from it them flow the springs of life.

My memory of 'smores will never be the same again.

This is spot on. He was not what is known as a method actor. In method acting, the actor, relaxes and becomes a kind of blank slate that can experience the emotions of the character they are playing. It's a process, for sure. Wierwille, on the other hand, was more of what would be known as an action based actor. In action based acting, if you want to appear happy, you smile. If you want to appear sad, you frown, and so on. You don't need to actually experience the emotions you are projecting. Wierwille was very good at this and fully aware of what he was doing, without actually experiencing the emotions he was portraying. That's what con artists do. They can't afford the luxury of experiencing the emotions of their marks.

There was a poster here, years ago, who gave account of seeing VPW turn his "spiritual anger" off and on at the drop of a hat. In other words, the "spiritually angry" guy was a character he played. He was an actor. He knew what he was doing and had full control of it. So, yeah, the guy was a con artist (among other things).

Talking to yourself again, Mike?

Yeah, sure. It's all our own fault. Could it have been the way we were dressed?