JavaJane

Now if it would just strike that golden idol in the auditorium... The Teacher. That would be tremendously electrifrying.

Yeah, same here... I don't have much time for meditation anymore, and I only do it then when I feel like it would help me clear my mind. As for results, I don't know. I have sort of felt like it helps me to open up to what is happening around me on a spiritual plane. But it is something that I do only in private. Maybe it ties into the whole shutting down critical thinking bit...

I am interested to hear more of what we know about speaking in tongues outside of twi - does anyone (other than me) still do it? I have done it since before my family became a part of twi - since around the age of 9 or 10, I think. I don't know why I started doing it, I just did and I didn't tell anyone about it. I didn't even really know what it was until I got involved in twi. I know it has been used in a lot of other religions other than Christian - does anyone have any more information on that? It's not like I could interpret or know what I was saying like in the book of Acts. I know some people have stated that they were faking it during fellowships... Does anyone find any value in it now that they are out of twi? I'm pretty curious about this. I myself don't do it as much as I did while in twi - because then it was something I was SUPPOSED to do. Now it is only during meditation or when I feel the need.

They even tried to control our conversations with God... how can you have a prayer from the heart when you have to include all this crap? How can you have time? Oh, yeah, I forgot... you just read the list and SIT, then you can get on with doing the five million other tasks you have to accomplish to be right with God. What a load of poop. Prayer is so much better now that I am out.

I know the old "how are you doing" question is a loaded one. They hate it when you tell them how great everything is. "...does not compute... ...does not compute... ...does not compute..."

Ok, a little , but I was once told (by leadership) that the reason there weren't a lot of black people in twi is because black women are too domineering and not "sweet" (of course "sweet" in twi speak = submissive and quiet.) Yup. That's what they said. Wonder what Rev. R0ya!e would say about that.

I Prince... I'm sure his music would have suffered if he had been part of Way Prod. Can you imagine?? HAHAHAHA....

I heard the AIDs thing, too. In the story I heard the healing took place in Florida. And how there were all these believers who were supposed to work at the World Trade Center on 9/11 who were all given revelation to call in sick that day so NO BELIEVERS were hurt on 9/11. And... Prince took PFAL, but left afterwards because he was possessed.

That's pretty much what we did - the last time we moved we just didn't leave a forwarding address. As for threatening violence, my husband says that sometimes there is a justifiable reason to push an old lady (Rosalie) down a flight of stairs.... but you still shouldn't do it. Sometimes we just have to do what we have to do to get away.

Sounds like the same old same old... When your life is nothing except serving the beast of twi, what more do you have to talk about or motivate you? I used to think this was the best way to live because it gave me purpose. Now I realize just how shallow I was.

Amazing! Thank you so much for this background!! And I agree, role-playing does allow people to exercise their moral imagination. I enjoyed playing D&D when I was younger, around the time my family got involved with twi. It didn't last long, but I enjoyed the game. When I went WOW, I was told the messed up version of this story. I have always wondered if it had any truth to it. He sounds llike he was a wonderful person. Probably too "creative" for twi. Games like D&D really inspire people to use their imaginations, which was not generally encouraged in twi. I am sorry for your loss, Steve.

I remember hearing from somebody on staff a while back that lightning struck one of the trees by the auditorium and blew it to smithereens. Was that at an Advanced Class? I can't remember... But the person who told me was SURE it was the adversary.

I still keep in contact with a couple twi innies, but it's long distance and neither of them trust WC enough to let them know they keep in contact with me. I don't usually hear much about twi from them other than b!+ching. And the occassional weird "believing" or "believer" remark. I'm thankful I don't live in an area where I would run into people I know are involved. The IHOP people are enough to give me the occasional flashback! Btw, Abigail, you rock.

This one might actually be true - maybe someone here can confirm. Dungeons and Dragons was invented by a twi believer who had gone off the deep end and gotten himself possessed.

Well, in Ohio there probably isn't a season that they could have consistently good weather in, otherwise I would think they were doing it on purpose..

OldSkool, after what you and yours went through, it would shock me if you DIDN'T have some form of PTSD.

My husband ran into an old fellowship "friend" a while back. He had a nice conversation with the guy, decided they would get together to hang out with another one of his old friends. He came home and I told him - "watch out." Hubby said, "no, they wouldn't try and get me back in! They see the problems with the ministry, he said they understood!" I told him that the problem won't be with his friends, it will be when they tell the leadership they want to hang out with him. I told him that they think they are saving him from the adversary's evil ways… First of all, you need to understand that my husband is the one who got me out of twi. He left before I did. He is not easily manipulated, he is not weak. He encourages me to think and question him when we don't agree. He taught me how to stand up for myself and gets upset when he thinks I am being too much the sweet little woman that I learned to be in twi. That's what makes this all so very very strange. Anyway, he got a call from his buddy the next day asking if he wanted to go hang out at a restaurant. I warned him again to be careful. He said we had nothing to worry about. He didn't come home that night until after midnight, and he was not the same person he was when he left - it was like he was drugged. Apparently the local WC had "just happened" to be in the same place sitting at another table. They introduced themselves and stayed at the other table for a while before leaving. I asked him if he considered this strange - he said it was, but that he had such a wonderful time with his buddies… oh, yes. It was so good to talk about "the Word"… they had told him how the fellowships they had were so much better than they used to be. That they weren't legalistic, that "the Word" was moving and people were getting delivered. My husband was so excited. It was as if he had forgotten all the horrible things we had been through. He said he wanted to go back to fellowship, "just to check it out." I then asked him if his friends had sooooooo much freedom to run their wonderful fellowship, then why did their WC overseers have to come and babysit them when they met with him? Why couldn't they be trusted on their own? Was it really just coincidence that they just "happened" to show up at the same restaurant?? The entire thing was completely and utterly surreal. The next day he called his friend and told him he would still like to be friends with them and hang out, but he would not be coming to fellowship, and he didn't want to hang out with the WC people. The guy never called him back. Anyone else have this sort of experience when running into those still in?

I think it all just depends on the individual... For me, it probably would have been better for me to stay out of churches completely for a year or two after leaving twi just so that my brain could go back to normal without any reminders of twi (or religion). I currently (sorta) attend a Catholic church (I say sorta because I have a toddler who does not possess an inside voice at the moment, and who can't seem to sit still for more than 20 minutes at a time... this means that I go to church on the big days - Christmas, Easter, etc, and we had her baptized in the church, which was really beautiful, but I digress...) I like the church because it is so very different from twi. It's so large that I can blend into the background with everyone else - I don't get marked out as a non-partipating member who needs to be brought back into the fold, it teaches very simple and direct teachings, they are involved with the community, and I am fascinated with the doctrine. The church is also very tranquil. I am not a full member of the Catholic faith, and I do not know if I really want to be - maybe some day, but for now I am content to sit and observe and be blessed by what I see. That is the state I am in, and it gives me what I need. My wounds are too fresh to be a gung-ho member of anything - even my La Leche League meetings reminded me of being in twi so much that attended it twice and then never came back. I'm a buit gun shy. My husband rushed to another church as soon as he got out of twi... it was not a good experience. I posted about it in an earlier thread: Ok, so that experience was not good, and now he won't go to church unless me, my mother in law, and my father in law drag him there (the church I attend is the one he attended as a child.) I think it just depends on the person. For a long time I couldn't go into a church or hear any teachings even on TV or the radio without one of two reactions: if the teaching touched me, I would cry uncontrollably because it was right and it hurt that I thought everyone outside of twi was evil for so long - or - if it hurt me to hear it, I would get angry and be mad for days at myself for hating the teaching.... too much condemnation for me on both counts. For a few years, I would have been better to just shut it all down and spend time within myself to allow myself to heal enough to be able to receive what others thought. **edited for clarity.

TWI used "get over it" and "renew your mind" as ways to imply that mental states and emotions were something that could be handled instantaeously by just changing your thinking... This, as in so many other ways that the "law of believing" was taught is erroneous. Things take work and time to accomplish, even to get through mental hurt. My mom was diagnosed with PTSD after leaving twi. My husband and I both as well. Now, I can't compare what we went through to what a war veteran went through, but repeated abuses cause damage to people. And the damage takes time to heal. I would consider myself mentally scarred by what happened in twi - and I still have nightmares and what I would consider to be flashbacks to things that happened in twi. While I was there I had suicidal thoughts, was separated from my family with no contact for years and years, and thought that if I left that place that I would be killed, or that my family would suffer consequences. That is a lot of constant mental anguish to live through. My therapist told me that I would go for long periods of time with no symptoms, and then something would trigger it again even years later. I at least know this is a possibility and will be prepared to deal with it if it happens again.

I second Mstar...

This is a question I have had for YEARS... Do they know the evil they do? Is it done intentionally? Are they themselves decieved and blinded? Has their conscience been seared? Do they define child of the devil, seed of the serpent, by what lives in their own hearts? LCM I think was duped into acting this way thinking that he needed to do it to be spiritual as taught by VP. VP and Rosie - they knew what they did/do is wrong and they don't care. IMHO.

This was on the TV today https://www.naturalcures.com/promotions/YWC031/?Promo=YWC031&gclid=CIvanI_OnaICFQP7agoduGcEyg. The cover looks like the Blue Book - I actually thought that is what it was when I was flipping through channels. The substance is about the same - all about how thinking can bring you success. And how it's the greatest secret in the world today. Crazy stuff.

Creepy.

GreaseSpot has helped my therapy a lot - it gives answers to things I never would have realized I needdd help with. Most importantly for me is that GSC showed me the false doctrines inherent in twi, and that there never were any good old days. It was rotten from it's inception. GSC has also helped my therapist! She came here to learn about spiritual abuse and specifically about twi's special brand of it.

Remember when that horrible tsunami hit a few years back? I remember HQ making some statement that twi was donating money to the relief efforts. Was that a load of crap? We were told repeatedly that if you really wanted to help people you should give to twi. What a crock! Help them do what? Fatten the bank account? Pay for someone to clean the toilets four times daily? Paying to make sure each blade of grass is exactly even? Paying for the upkeep on buildings and land that is unused? Pay employees who are trying to do their best for God's people the bare minimum required by law? I have really grown to appreciate the Catholic Church in this category - they feed the poor, they run schools for the children and provide a better education (generally) than public schools... They open hospitals, etc etc... They provide services with the money given. Our church will use your tithe as the amount to send your children to school from preschool through high school. I'm not saying it's perfect, or that there aren't abuses, but what people give they can see it benefitting others around them. And Gen, thanks for the post. It was great!