johniam

When I was in my teens and 20s my ideal female beauty was probably 75% barbie doll and 25% character lines. But this, too, has shifted. Ah, yes, the pig dies hard.

At least LCM could get someone born again. Well, of GOD'S spirit.

quote: What is Reality? This was more of a rhetorical question than an interrogative one. It served me as a memory peg. In post # 20 I said that I didn't need 2 yrs of college to learn that Freud was nothing more than a glorified religion bigot...and he WAS. He put all who believe in God under the blanket label of "delusional" in his 1930 essay called 'Civilization and its discontents'. He further called them "paranoid", "insane", and guilty of trying to "remould reality". Let me get this straight. This guy says others are "delusional" but he thought he knew what reality was for everybody on earth. What a maroon!

quote: I then pose this question to you, Mr. IamthatIaM. Religion has been around a LOT longer than Mr. Carlin, therefore, who do you think is staler? Umm...religion also misrepresents God and Christianity. Mr. Carlin had facts to base his stupidity on...he just focusses on the wrong facts, like others, unfortunately. quote: In our altered hippy state we could not tell if it was real or memorex What is reality?

quote: THIS just about says it all. Granted, it IS George Carlin, So this dinosaur stale comedian misrepresents God and Christianity. How original.

quote: But besides that, this boasting of being the best thing since the earth cooled- that was part of the marketing. Marketing. How evil. or is it? The printing press was the first thing that allowed marketing beyond what Jesus and Paul did. And all that really did was save time. Radio added to that, then TV, then the internet. But we are a marketing society. You can't reach large numbers of people at the same time without it. It's a tool, not a virtue. IMO it was smart of VP to combine marketing principles with spiritual knowledge. He wasn't the only one either. That 'I found it' seminar you could take in the 70s cost $600.00 for a weekend. Any college class cost more than pfal if you consider travel time and/or the longer duration of the class. I'm sorry that you feel pfal was more of a ripoff than anything else.

quote: Yeah.. 36 hours of class, to learn the keys to success like it hasn't been known.. a real "bargain" and shortcut. Then all of a sudden it's not quite good enough. Well, more study.. What about college? I didn't need 2 yrs of college to learn that Freud was nothing more than a glorified religion bigot. But I had fun there and I'll take my 2 yr degree even though that's not quite enough for the elite. This all reminds me of something. We all know what the figure of speech called hyperbole is: exaggerating the largeness of something, like Bart Simpson saying don't have a cow or in Genesis where Nimrod was building a tower "to reach unto heaven", but in this thread Mr. H has exaggerated the SMALLNESS of something. Very effectively, I might add. quote: I didn't need 36 hours of a class to save me from raw ignorance just because I didn't know the difference between throroughly and throughly. Another example of this is in a Grateful Dead DVD. Comedians Al Franken and Tom Davis (SNL) are coaching Dead keyboardist Brent Mydland as to how to introduce them to the crowd. After Brent walks away Al Franken says, (sarcastically) "Oh, this is just GREAT! We're doing comedy in front of the Dead audience and we're being introduced by BRENT! He's been with the band for 5 minutes. Oh, this is just GREAT!" At that time (1980), Brent had been with the band for just over a year and a half, not 5 minutes. This was a short time compared to the rest of the band on board since the 60s, but again, Al Franken exaggerated the smallness of something. Is this still hyperbole in reverse, or is there a specific word that covers exaggerating smallness instead of largeness? Anybody know?

quote: one guy from Minnesota even proposed to me! Was it dmiller? quote: My oldest somehow got athletes foot when she was 4 so I would have her pee in a cup and I treated her feet and in 24hours it was gone. No lie. it works. Gross! Actually, I suppose it may work, but I'll never do it; too weird. Reminds me of a joke... A Harvard man and a Yale man were both urinating in the men's room at the same time. The Harvard man finished first and proceeded to wash his hands. The Yale man finished and just walked out of the men's room. Later, the Harvard man walked up to the Yale man and said, "At Hahvard, we wash our hahnds after we urinate"! The Yale man replied, "At Yale, we don't urinate on our hahnds". Speaking of the ROA, in 1985, the year VP died, on Wed. of the ROA there was a memorial service all morning. I slept in and didn't even go. Some here at GSC have labelled me a "Wierwille worshipper" because I still have positive things to say about TWI. Not only did I sleep in, I got up while the thing was still going on and walked to the parking lot and back. Bless patrol didn't even "arrest" me or anything. Never heard a thing about it. I must be going to hell for sure, huh?

Wow. That's awful. Sounds like it may have been a freakish reaction though. I feed my dog cheese (sparingly) apples and carrots if I'm eating them myself. Don't know what my wife may feed him. But he just turned 10 in human yrs and he's doing OK.

quote: I didn't need 36 hours of a class to save me from raw ignorance just because I didn't know the difference between throroughly and throughly. It only took 2 minutes or so for VP to teach that, not 36 hours. 28 minutes if you count the whole segment, context and all. Sin and death are not an imaginary problem.

quote: IMO, to exclusively attend a home fellowship (8-16 regulars) is detrimental to one's spiritual growth.......so isolated and all. Sorta like being snow-bound with no electricity (or years).....and running your own space heater which could possibly burn down your own home. Isolated? I'm not isolated from God. I'm really not too worried about my spiritual growth at this point.

Yes, I believed.

quote: To me, seeing where the ROA started out and where it ended up, I think it served as sort of a metaphor for twi in general. One of the last big meetings I went to in the 90s Larry P was one of the speakers and he was going on and on about how mature the believers were now (90s) compared to the 70s. If that was maturity, I'd rather be, like, sooooo immaCHURRR. Linda, that would be an allegory, not a metaphor. An allegory is an EXTENDED metaphor. Aw man, I'm just MESSIN' with you.

quote: I think it's rather sad that this thread didn't get as much attention as the worst things about the ROA thread. That's just it. I posted positive things on that thread; didn't want to repeat myself. BUT dear friends... quote: I remember the 1980 ROA. I didn't get there until Wed by which time the rain stopped ha ha. I always appreciated that the rest areas on hwy 75 had people there all night with coffee when folks were traveling. I remember one year as I was driving into the parking lot there was a state police car across Wierwille Rd from the entrance and the cop was astounded; I could see it in his face that he couldn't believe how orderly and uncomplicated people were being processed, and those flat bed tractor things that got you from the parking lot to tent city, wow. One year I was in tent city and one morning I woke up to that Spyro Gyra tape 'Morning Dance' playing in a tent a few yards away. I was so blessed: no mandated SIT, believer's meeting study the word do a lift list etc. That atmosphere was what I loved about ROAs. In '83 a friend arrived mid week so we had a group of about 8 of us sitting outside a tent at 1AM singing every song we knew with couple guitars and finally bless patrol very politely asked us to stop so people could sleep but nobody complained. Loved those bands in the west woods, loved going to the house of his healing presence, loved wow burgers, chicken, etc.

One thing I liked about TWI was that there actually was a network of believers to cover many things. For example, people praying for stuff at the House of His healing presence at ROAs or even at the local level. One year I knew ahead of time that I would be spending 4 days in LA so at the ROA I went to the way of the usa tent and asked questions and got a BCs phone # and got to go to a twig a mile from where I was staying in LA. Cool. I did go to a mega church 2 years ago and it was the same thing. If you came before the main sermon started they had stuff for adults, stuff for teens, stuff for younger kids, and really great music. It just feels good to have, as the thread title says, mega options. I go to a home fellowship, and on the way there every Sunday we pass a mega church and this guy wearing an orange vest is (I don't mean this derogatorily) just parking cars for Jesus and having a great time doing it. He waves at us as we drive by. I wouldn't be afraid to check out THAT church.

quote: ...I recall being at a twi "party" and while outside (smoking a cig), I told an off color joke to a few guys...everybody laughed until I turned around and saw the branch leader glaring at me!...he took me aside and reamed me out. here's the joke I told: What did Mr. Spock see when he looked in the toilet? ...the captain's log! I thought it was funny and really didn't think anyone would get devil possessed listening to it... Aw that's weird. I was at a function and during break outside I told that joke...How do you tell if someone is into Moosehead? Check for antler marks on their thighs. And one guy looked at me odd but other than that no problem. Wait! Oh, that's right. It was a twig coordinator's meeting. I guess when you're a twig coordinator you're spiritual enough to handle jokes like that.

Close to you by the Carpenters

How about 'Cherish' by the Association, or the song that replaced it as #1 that year, 'Light my fire'. Aw, hell, fast forward 20 yrs to 'Get it girl' by 2 live crew. It's all romantic. Sometimes I feel like 'You shook me all night long', sometimes I feel like 'Cherish'.

Wikipedia has a cyber cemetery for anyone who died in any calendar year going back to at least 1900. Anyone with any fame level whatsoever is probably covered. VP is in it for that year.

This is poignant. She did not get rich by being born into it nor by starting a business and building on that. She was a person of low stature, like many of us, who got rich by timing and chance, not like many of us. But being rich is not what it's cracked up to be. Yeah, she wouldn't ever have to worry about paying rent, but look at all the headaches. I feel sorry for her more than I feel morally superior to her.

quote: With some of these companies that will soon be offering space vacations, its bound to be on some agendas Weightless sex----now that would be intriguing... Reminds me of that Bond movie 'Moonraker' at the end when James is being intimate with Dr. Goodhead aboard a spaceship and it gets transmitted to TV and someone asks "007? What are you doing?" and M says, "I believe he's attempting reentry."

quote: Johniam seems to have nothing the he didn't like about the ROA and thinks he was in a different cult. I'm just thinking maybe his rose colored glasses protected him from all the rain, mud, lack of sleep, port o potty detail, etc... I gotta have rose colored or any other colored glasses on to enjoy food, music, and friends???

No, it was the Grateful Dead's fault. At the exact time Mt. St. Helens erupted they were on stage in Portland, OR playing a song called 'Fire on the Mountain'.

quote: Any party is the worst. I once invited a coworker to a superbowl party. He showed up with a 12 pack, he tried to hand them out but no one would take a beer but me. He wanted to talk sports because his team was playing but everyone else was talking about the bible. He hit the food table had a beer and left. I got a talking to for not telling him not to bring beer. How lame! In fall of '78 there was a guys' way home and a girls' way home plus 2 twigs and the limb leader in the city where I was. One Friday night there was a party at the girls' way home. When the limb leader got there he says, "You're never gonna know what your limit is until you hit it once or twice. So don't be afraid to have fun, OK?" Must be something wrong with our scale of values, eh?

I remember the 1980 ROA. I didn't get there until Wed by which time the rain stopped ha ha. I always appreciated that the rest areas on hwy 75 had people there all night with coffee when folks were traveling. I remember one year as I was driving into the parking lot there was a state police car across Wierwille Rd from the entrance and the cop was astounded; I could see it in his face that he couldn't believe how orderly and uncomplicated people were being processed, and those flat bed tractor things that got you from the parking lot to tent city, wow. One year I was in tent city and one morning I woke up to that Spyro Gyra tape 'Morning Dance' playing in a tent a few yards away. I was so blessed: no mandated SIT, believer's meeting study the word do a lift list etc. That atmosphere was what I loved about ROAs. In '83 a friend arrived mid week so we had a group of about 8 of us sitting outside a tent at 1AM singing every song we knew with couple guitars and finally bless patrol very politely asked us to stop so people could sleep but nobody complained. Loved those bands in the west woods, loved going to the house of his healing presence, loved wow burgers, chicken, etc. Maybe I was in a different cult than the rest of you.