Rocky

https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/cocoon A cocoon is a silky web spun around the larvae of many insects. Caterpillars emerge from their cocoons as beautiful butterflies. The word cocoon can also refer to a form of self-protection for humans. For some people, their house is a cocoon, a cozy retreat from which they can escape the world. They cocoon themselves away for a whole weekend, Thanks waysider for mentioning this notion. In the religious world, some have "retreats." In wayworld, we had "advances." Not that many got the connection with cocooning themselves away. These days I just see it as the contrarian nature of wayworld.

Dr. Steven Hassan, two minute YT video on the subject of whether a person can be HYPNOTIZED without realizing it. This video does NOT comment on Power for Abundant Living; The Way International; Victor Wierwille or Loy Craig Martindale. It DOES, however SUGGEST the practice has been around for decades. I would SUGGEST that if anyone has (unauthorized or authorized) access to PFAL class recordings, it would be very intriguing to have someone like Dr. Hassan listen to those recordings to provide professional assessment thereof.

YIKES! You're still on their mailing list?!

I misunderstood. My apologies.

Nevermind.

A key benefit you will receive by reading these letters: melting the mask off of the face of TWI's founder. I think of a quote from Soren Kierkegaard: Life can only be understood looking backwards; But it must be lived forwards. You'll be able to understand much more about Victor Wierwille and his cult by reading these letters.

YIKES! What a thought. We don't grow without enduring difficult times, as I now understand it.

Oh the irony! In the late 1980s, I married someone who had never been in twi. I tried (too hard) to do that too. It didn't work at all for me. My divorce was final in 1996. The irony is that my ex was proselytized by a Mormon divorce attorney and has been a practicing LDS follower ever since. She even (re)married someone from that church. That didn't work out for her either. One marriage was more than enough for me. I've also observed that the whole man is the head of the woman and/or marriage thing has very much gone out of style, I suppose except for hard core religious types. Socks, I too hope Mary Ann decided for herself and is happy now with her life as she is living it.

you sound delusional.

How many would want to follow along with such a group? How many would want to follow along with any other such group that exercises such apparent "undue influence" which is inherently deceptive? Is this simply an example and an instance of something inherent in humanity and/or human nature because "we" (humans/humanity) crave something in particular that this deluded NPD "minister" promised? Is this an instance of... I propose answers to these questions may be alluded to, if not explicitly articulated in the writings of Steven Hassan, who has researched the phenomenon for nearly 50 years? I don't know. But I wonder about it a lot. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/contributors/steven-a-hassan-phd Hassan's books include: Freedom of Mind Combating Cult Control Releasing the Bonds The Bite Model THE BITE MODEL OF AUTHORITARIAN CONTROL: UNDUE INFLUENCE, THOUGHT REFORM, BRAINWASHING, MIND CONTROL, TRAFFICKING AND THE LAW Hassan also wrote a book explaining cult influence in a particular political figure in America today The common thread in all of his writing is undue influence. He's not anti-religion. He's not inherently political. But he does have insight related to understanding what Victor Wierwille tapped into in order to capture or corral tens of thousands of us to follow his teaching. What I suspect these Way Corps letters can provide to us now in retrospect is how Victor's emotional condition when he wrote those letters bely his underlying psychological vulnerability was perhaps one key to enable many of us to escape what we had not yet recognized as Victor's undue influence over us.

Indeed. WHO has authority over whom, and over what? Does any donated money go anywhere to help communities and people outside of TWI? OR is it all hoarded and no information provided as to how much is used for what purposes? That's generally disclosed in audits of nonprofit organizations.

As did MANY of us...

https://freedomofmind.com/ https://BITEmodel.com

People who come here wanting to know what TWI is all about... maybe a child or friend... or themselves. In addition to Penworks' insight from her first hand experience, I offer these resources. https://freedomofmind.com/ https://BITEmodel.com

https://bitemodel.com/ Steven Hassan Ph.D. after years of focused study of cults came up with the BITE model for assessing whether the group was a cult or not. Behavior Information (control thereof)... I took the PFLAP class 49+ years ago. I still remember Victor Wierwille instructing students to NOT read anything but materials produced by TWI. He cleverly couched that directive in temporal terms in that class. IF you will ONLY read the bible and TWI materials for several months... Thought Emotion Bottom-line: like Penworks pointed out, it does matter where the money they'll ask you to donate goes and what they do with it. But it's really so much more. Penworks, in her memoir UNDERTOW demonstrated how it was far more insidious than just keeping their use of donations secret.

I get it.

Let me put it this way, with many first hand records of abuse by twi leadership, if you were in their shoes, would you feel welcome here?

Oh my, Charity! Without purging from GSC all of the things so many have said about twi over the last couple of decades? I can't imagine.

https://www.cultfacts.com/cults/the-way-international First 2 paragraphs are much as twi might describe itself. Third paragraph: They also adopted a hierarchical educational structure which many say is used to exercise excessive control over its members. "The Foundational Class on Power for Abundant Living," serves as an entry point into a system that encourages participants to climb a ladder of increasing commitment and involvement, a structure often compared to pyramid schemes [not unlike Scientology]. Members who commit to the Way have reported severe sleep deprivation, isolation from families, and other forms of control from church leaders, which have led them to drop out of school, quit taking medicine, or prepare for a prophesized nuclear holocaust. Some of their worst abuses started to come to light after former members launched lawsuits against the organization. In addition to concerns about psychological manipulation and financial control, former members testified about a widespread coordination of up to fifty leaders[aka conspiracy] to assist in and coverup the sexual abuse of female members at the hands of the presidents and high-ranking leaders. Court documents and media sources reported that girls as young as thirteen are shown pornography and trained in how to provide sexual gratification while being taught that a woman's purpose is to give sexual pleasure to men. Victims revealed how leaders used the guilt of disobeying God and fears of death to coerce them into submission. Meanwhile other trusted leaders told them how privileged they were to be able to satisfy such great men of God. At it's peak, The Way was considered the second largest cult in America, with up to 40,000 members. While membership declined significantly in the 1990s, the organization still exists today, remaining curiously quiet about their abusive history.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=is+the+way+international+a+dangerous+cult&atb=v353-1&t=chromentp&ia=web

He really did NOT see the people as anything other than revenue sources. That's right! It's also like when owners of major league sports teams... they need "butts in seats." "...emerged into full fruition..." [iow, HAPPENED] CULTS make their own language to help cement the unseen chains around the followers. What C A R P!

Charity, you SURMISED correctly. I just viewed a YouTube short that calls out mindlessness. IOW, acting/believing because someone told us something which we accept without challenging. Victor Wierwille gave absolute (private) interpretations of scripture. In many cases, some of us wrote notes in our bibles to memorialize those absolutes. I don't subscribe to William Brooks' interpretations/declarations. BUT, I can't argue with his notion/desire to challenge what he was taught. That's the whole idea behind Proverbs 2:1-5. Here's another caveat: while I wouldn't discourage him from challenging any given teaching/interpretation/declaration of twi, I would counsel against anyone accepting his claims without challenging them mindfully. IOW, he would have to make sound arguments for how/why what he claims to be true is actually true.