JavaJane

I think that hit the nail on the head!!

Welcome, Limbo!!!!! The coffee here is good and strong, and the regulars are a squirrelly bunch (especially Ham!). Enjoy your stay! I enjoyed your posts!

Bolsh might be making a reference to Grounds....

Does anyone else remember LCM telling us that he had a revelation that TWI would always have at least two people believing The Word ™ until the return of Christ.... Maybe GSC's ever rising population, and the decrease of TWI's followers is a sign of the impending Apocolypse? :blink: OH NOES!!!

What an astounding grasp of history and ecology and horticulture that have!! (I am being sarcastic here!)

Oh, exie!!!! I cannot even express how that makes me feel that you went hrough that. What an amazing strong woman you are to be able to express your story in writing. George, well put!! As for those offspring off VP who still fellowship with twi, I think acknowledging the truth of what really happened and how hurtful it was to others ( rapes, abuse, suicides) is too much of an emotional burden for them.

Want people to come on Staff? How about this: treat them like responsible adults - let them sleep and eat where they want to!! Let them live off campus if they so desire. Get rid of communal bathrooms in Founder's Hall. Don't REQUIRE attendance at things (STS, noon meal, etc.)... Let people have fellowships with people outside their department (your boss shouldn't be your minister - it's a conflict of interest). Don't have a curfew. That still wouldn't overcome the drawbacks to living in New Knoxville in the company of a cult, but that's just me!

His story made me cry too.

My brothers used to hide porn in the underwear drawer... I wonder how the coordinators would have liked that? Probably fine as long as it was decent and in order and stacked appropriately by date.

Everybody got to get up your business, you know?? Remember the weekly schedules some of you people had to turn in? I remember my mom telling me that they had to schedule sex with their spouse and then put it on the schedule for approval while they were in residence. Then their coordinator would tell them if they thought they hadn't allotted enough time or if they had allotted too much. Good grief. And, from what I understand, the department coordinators at HQ would pick up people's mail and deliver it to their employees?? (Of course, all of it was handled by the Procuress, Ramona first)... I always thought that was a bit of an invasion of privacy. Sounds like you won that argument, What?

We sold ours (cash for gold!!) and got about $25.00. Funny thing is the girl behind the counter asked if we were involved in twi! Weird... Even weirder? Turns out my dad witnessed to her 20 or so years ago and she went to twig for a year or two until they told her she was possessed and kicked her out. Even stranger? We are in a completely different part of the country from where this happened.

The bikers around here go to the funerals and park in front of the protestors, effectively blocking them from bothering the greiving families. When the protesters start chanting the bikers rev their bikes to drown them out. It's sad they even have to do that, but free speech comes into play...

Exie, you crack me up!!

BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!! (Click on the evil laugh above) These are the guys that protest at servicemen and women's funerals carrying signs that read stuff like "God hates fags" and "God hates America." Jerks. Don't dish it if you can't take it.

TWI is a bizarre combination of the occult and fundamentalist Christianity... makes for a nasty cocktail.... Gives people a false sense of power, and at the same time a false extremely inflated (and twisted) sense of right and wrong.

OMG!!! I HATE THAT COMMERCIAL! When I was pregnant, I would have to leave the room until it was over because I was 5,000,000x more emotional than I am now due to all the hormones and everything. And as for jury duty - I would be in the same boat, Notta! I am such a wuss when it comes to ANYTHING involving kids!

yes, you are right! God got us out and found us in the midst of all our hurts! And exie - all your hugs are appreciated - I'm hugging you back!

Teach, I am so sorry that happened to you!!

I grew up in twi from my tweens onward... so, during those emotional and turbulent times of adolescence and young adulthood, I learned to make myself emotionally numb through the teachings of twi on controlling your emotions, and renewing your mind. I only allowed myself to feel what I was supposed to feel. I cut off all empathy, and I didn't allow emotions like sadness, regret, guilt, or even hurt feelings into my mind. I just pushed them back down whenever I would feel them. The only negative emotion I allowed myself to feel was anger... Good old "spiritual" anger - because it was acceptable to be angry. And anger feels better than sadness. I would tell myself when I would begin to feel sad or lonely or bad in any way that it was because of the adversary, so I would change it to anger at the adversary (or the person who caused the hurt - as long as they weren't in the household... and I would definiately change it to anger if it was a LEADER in the household that hurt me.) It boils down to emotional lying. A few years before I left I started having anxiety attacks, and crying for no discernable reason - like at commercials on TV late at night... I think it was just all those years of emotions coming back to the top. Now that I am out, sometimes I have an emotional reaction to something and it sticks with me for a long time... especially if it has to do with having empathy towards another. Earlier today, there was a post here on GreaseSpot that mentioned the children and parents at Jonestown drinking the poisoned KoolAid.... I am still upset when I think about those poor children and their parents. It's like I have exposed nerves or something. It used to be that I would just hide all those feelings away by reasoning that those people deserved what they got by being involved in that group. I would think the same thing about stuff on the news. I had distanced myself from others, I was detached... and now it's like I have all these emotions and sometimes I don't know how to handle them at all. Then again, maybe I'm more normal now.... Or maybe I am emotionally stunted in my maturity because during the formative years of my life as a teen I just never let myself feel anything... Anyone else out there go through this stuff??

I like you, socks! Great post!

Hmmmmmm....... DOCUMENTED?? Seriously? And isn't that $54,000,000.00 mostly tied up in STOCKS? Good thing Rosie wasn't paying attention in this meeting - she was probably playing footsie under the table with Donna.

Thanks for the encouragement, guys!! You all have helped me out a lot - from the time I first started questioning twi until now. Once, again, THANK YOU!

I have heard the verse taught where it says that the sins of the father will be visited upon the children and had the example of WC who left having terrible things happen to their children... I ALWAYS thought that was messed up. And I also had WC tell me that because my parents were called to be WC, that I had to have been called as well. Not sure if that is what we are referring to or not... In any case, it was just a method of control.

Now I know why my limb coordinator's wife got so angry with me when I bought her kid an icecream when we were at the mall one day on a witnessing gig... (the daughter was the other half of my two by two). Geez. Devil Spirit flavored Ice Cream...