Good questions all Twinky but I'm afraid that I have no answers.
I was very guarded in my paper. I said what I figured that they wanted to hear and nothing more than I had to say. I remember being told by someone that it needed to show some sort of deliverance from something big. That was (as I was told) so that we could better empathize with someone in big trouble. Kind of along the lines of a cop being pepper sprayed or tased before they are allowed to carry the thing. Funny but we dont have to be shot before we carry a gun. Hmmm...not that I'm complaining mind you. :unsure:
Ok, to be fair. When I was in college (before the Way Corps, at a bonafide state university) and took some Psych classes, I had an assignment to write a paper entitled "Who Am I?"
It wasn't a freshman Psych class, it was upper level, but I honestly can't remember what year Psych class it was. I wrote the paper, still have a copy of it as a matter of fact. So, point being, when I went into the Way Corps and was asked to write an "Autobiography," it wasn't a red flag, or any such thing. Just routine, did it, (after all, I had done it once before) and all was well.
Call me naive, but it just seemed like an excercise in self awareness that might be neccessary for a leadership training program?
I know people have speculated much on who read the papers, their motives, etc. But it seems to me, that if everyone in the Way Corps had to write them, as we did in the 10th, and I know the 8th as well, that it would be way too much work for whoever was designated the task to go through them, and read them all. And then with evil intent in mind?
It's a stretch to me, to think somebody read them looking for victims. But whatever, I've been shocked before. :mellow:
Who got to read the autobiographies – officially and unofficially? DWBH, Catcup, what did you see of this?
How particularly unfair. I know others who did write these things – I think my younger Corps may have had to - and the authors worked hard and suffered emotionally and dragged out all sorts of stressful stuff that they had dealt with hitherto. Only, perhaps, to have it used against them later.
If someone revealed some deviant or criminal behavior in their autobiography, did that come back later and, as it were, “bite” them by being used as a weapon against them in their later years in the Corps?
It's been reported that dirt from them was reported publicly about people if they quit or were fired.
I know people have speculated much on who read the papers, their motives, etc. But it seems to me, that if everyone in the Way Corps had to write them, as we did in the 10th, and I know the 8th as well, that it would be way too much work for whoever was designated the task to go through them, and read them all. And then with evil intent in mind?
It's a stretch to me, to think somebody read them looking for victims. But whatever, I've been shocked before. :mellow:
I forget if it was Dot who said that vpw had summoned her with intent to do what vpw intended to do in private,
and had her "Birth to the Corps" paper IN HIS HAND.
I forget if it was Dot who said that vpw had summoned her with intent to do what vpw intended to do in private,
and had her "Birth to the Corps" paper IN HIS HAND.
Good point W.W.
I don't think VP looked through the papers looking for victims.
I think it was the other way around.
In other words, if he saw someone he was "interested" in, he had their information readily available.
It has been mentioned here on GSC that the CF&S class also contained a questionnaire which the instructor was supposed to collect from the students and place in a sealed envelope. The envelope was then sent directly to HQ.
I confirm this to be accurate.
There was no justifiably legitimate reason to conduct any sort of survey, much less one that did not meet validation standards.
EyesOpen: very wise to be guarded in what you wrote. See my note below.
Waysider: "red herring" occurred to me, too. Haven't heard this about the CF&S questionnaire before.
Ex10: I don't doubt that there could be some legitimate reason, like your autobio in college. Knowing what you have been rescued from and knowing who you are is important. But with the underbelly of TWI as now exposed, I just wonder if it had a double significance, as so much stuff to do with TWI did. My girlfriend who is now a Methodist minister trained for 3 years and had to write various essays and consider a lot of personal/emotional stuff in depth and discuss it with mentors, to see that she was suited to the ministry, but it wasn't an out-and-out expose of her life in an "autobiography" way.
WW: that's horrible about Dot. Maybe she will add something on this thread. It would be ideal to use as "dog returning to vomit" ammunition, when someone was kicked out M&A, to say that they had never fully renewed their minds to the Word in the area(s) they had disclosed.
My younger Corps had to prepare these autobios. Some of the Corps were a bit sensitive or guarded about some things in their past. I believe one or two had been told that they had not considered deeply enough and were told to write more detail (ie, more self-disclosure). But of course I don't know how much (or little) they had written before being prodded to write more.
i know for a fact that eyes other than vic's perused many of those supposedly "confidential" from birth to the corps essays!........when these "autobiographical essays" were first demanded from the corps, it was via direct commandment from vic himself, in the fall of 1979.......it was first "discussed" by vic at the first corps week which took place the previous month in new knoxville, at hq, august, 1979.........the doofus from okie and finnegan were sitting up on the stage with vic when this was first batted around.......in september, king okie, while at emporia, got into the whole "suggestion of a general is tantamount to a command" thing, and the command from der fuhrer vic was sent forth to all the in-residence corps, and then extended to all corps everywhere when finnegan figured he'd better keep pace with the doofus!.........the whole thing blew up at corps week, 1980, when vic walked off the stage in disgust, because there was rampant "non-compliance" with the "order", from a large number of corps grads, who had, for whatever reasons, not submitted their "essays"...........the doofus himself, finnegan, yours truly, and many other "leaders" included!.......the "mad scramble" to write and submit the time-wasting essays was on, along with the flurry of "letters of apology" to vic by those who were "guilty" of "disobedience"!
at the corps placement meetings in may of 1980, was the first time i heard this "strictly confidential" information mentioned by vic and the doofus, when discussion of various in-rez graduating and interim corps assignments for the upcoming year of 1980-81 were taking place, and vic's or king okie's "input" was based on information they had gleaned from their reading of the autobiographies of certain corps members whose assigments were under discussion at that time!........by the next corps placement meetings in may of 1981, corps coordinators from emporia and rome city were now mentioning information from autobiographies of in-residence corps, which they too were now obviously reading!!........and, such information now became "expected" from the in-residence corps coordinators at all the "root locales" whenever deemed "necessary" in order to make the "most appropriate" assignments for all the in-residence corps who were graduating or "going forth as leaders and workers" on their interim year assigments!
those of us "on-the-field leaders" were not given access to these "confidential" autobiographies during my time of involvement at the placement meetings from 1981-1986.........this "confidential" information was apparently "restricted" to bot members and corps coordinators only during those years.......but was readily available, as i said previously, whenever it was deemed "necessary" to making assignments for specific corps members, from the corps coordinators who were present at the placement meetings.
imo, these "confidential" essays were definitely used by vic, king okie, and the corps coordinators, at their discretion, to screen "candidates" who would provide good service to the various mogs and mogettes, whose "needs" included the servicing of their personal sexual pecadilloes!.......p*t l*nn admitted this to me personally in february, 1987, during the weekend she spent at my house, after being told by hq that i was "born again of the wrong seed", and wanting to "see for herself" if this "revelation" about me was indeed "true"!.......she also told me that doody moneyhands was providing the same "pimping service" for vic and king okie from the rome city campus!!!..........p*t repented, and "begged" me to help her "get through to john".......which i agreed to do, and which association with me eventually led to their being fired from twi on april 1, 1987!.......doody moneyhands has not repented to this day, and led many "lambs" to the slaughter from her ivory tower at rome city, including the young daughters of those who coordinated the family corps during the 1990's!!!........i wonder what boob and doody's current positions of "leadership" are at twi today???
so much for twi's "promise of confidentiality" regarding who was privvy to the personal information they were commanded by the mogs to provide, eh???..........how the information from the "from birth to the corps" essays was used, and who was "responsible" for reading them after 1986, i do not know.........maybe some of the current offshoot "leaders" who were corps coordinators during the years 1987 through 1998 could provide that information, since they're the ones who know???..........ask them twinky, and let us greasespotters know what their answers are!.......good luck!......................................peace.
Ok, to be fair. When I was in college (before the Way Corps, at a bonafide state university) and took some Psych classes, I had an assignment to write a paper entitled "Who Am I?"
It wasn't a freshman Psych class, it was upper level, but I honestly can't remember what year Psych class it was. I wrote the paper, still have a copy of it as a matter of fact. So, point being, when I went into the Way Corps and was asked to write an "Autobiography," it wasn't a red flag, or any such thing. Just routine, did it, (after all, I had done it once before) and all was well.
Call me naive, but it just seemed like an excercise in self awareness that might be neccessary for a leadership training program?
I know people have speculated much on who read the papers, their motives, etc. But it seems to me, that if everyone in the Way Corps had to write them, as we did in the 10th, and I know the 8th as well, that it would be way too much work for whoever was designated the task to go through them, and read them all. And then with evil intent in mind?
It's a stretch to me, to think somebody read them looking for victims. But whatever, I've been shocked before. :mellow:
...ditto...what ex10 said...that's what I thought they were for.
It was a great exercise in self-awareness for me.
JL gave ours back when we graduated in 1980 something.
Thanks, DWBH, I thought that might be the case. May as well have issued the in rez corps with megaphones, or perhaps added a megaphone to the "What to Bring" list (LOL).
WB, glad you got yours back. Any intereresting information could well have been copied or noted, however.
Did anyone else get theirs back? If so, when - when you graduated, or as part of teh 10-year pack?
Hey Twinky, sorry I didn't make that clear. The "we" was everyone in my corps and we were given the autobiographies back a few days before graduation. I threw mine away when cleaning out my file cabinets 20 yrs. later, though.
There were some more papers we'd written in our "10 Year Pack" also. JL said they decided not to do the 10 Yr. Pack anymore because they didn't want to hold on to that kind of information about people for that long.
I just went through what I have left of my way corps files. I didn't find a copy of my "autobiography," which I don't care about anyway. It was pretty innocuous. But I do have my journals from 1978 (when I went WOW for the 1st time) to 1986, when I got disgusted and left the cult, that cover my "Way time."
Pretty interesting stuff. I have meetings, times, dates, what was said when by whom, documented. HMMMMM.....
I never cared about this stuff before, but now it's seems somehow, relevant.
so much for twi's "promise of confidentiality" regarding who was privvy to the personal information they were commanded by the mogs to provide, eh???.........
Imagine that!...You mean, they betrayed our trust?...
These people were bottom feeders...what a bunch of lowlifes...
i do remember distinctly being told not to hold anything back. let it rip dirty details and everything with the express purpose (lol) to show how god had delivered you
in other words, the more detailed and disgusting your past was, the more you were delivered
I just went through what I have left of my way corps files. I didn't find a copy of my "autobiography," which I don't care about anyway. It was pretty innocuous. But I do have my journals from 1978 (when I went WOW for the 1st time) to 1986, when I got disgusted and left the cult, that cover my "Way time."
Pretty interesting stuff. I have meetings, times, dates, what was said when by whom, documented. HMMMMM.....
I never cared about this stuff before, but now it's seems somehow, relevant.
Hey T sounds like you have enough material for a book What the h*ll may as well.
I didn't write any down and dirty details. I glazed over a large part of my life and wrote just enough to keep things in perspective. That may have saved me from a lot of crap in residence.
But - years later the local MOG-jerk came up to me and was trying to tell me how I was and why I was that way. All of a sudden he starts in on how my father was and what things happened to me as a child.
WTF!?
My mind was racing while I tried to figure out who I told this stuff to (no one) and who could have repeated it (no one.)
Then there was the momentary lapse of reason, "Revelation??? Ya think? Nah - couldn't be."
I think it occurred to me that some of my paper had been shared... I don't remember if I seriously considered it, but now it's all fitting together.
Hey Dooj. Well, you know about some other character that seemed to have read your autobio. What "level" was he, a BC? Glad this thread is giving you a little fresh insight, pi$$y though that may be.
's all about control.
Ex10: you may have some really weird stuff in your journals. They'd probably make interesting reading, with hindsight. Sort of their biography, that you wrote as their amanuensis.
I still have my journals, too, from in rez. It's embarrassing reading them. Such petty stuff seemed such a big deal. I seemed to spend a lot of time stressing over things that really didn't matter and awaiting deliverance. And that's just what was written down...!
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Eyesopen
Good questions all Twinky but I'm afraid that I have no answers.
I was very guarded in my paper. I said what I figured that they wanted to hear and nothing more than I had to say. I remember being told by someone that it needed to show some sort of deliverance from something big. That was (as I was told) so that we could better empathize with someone in big trouble. Kind of along the lines of a cop being pepper sprayed or tased before they are allowed to carry the thing. Funny but we dont have to be shot before we carry a gun. Hmmm...not that I'm complaining mind you. :unsure:
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waysider
My personal opinion is that the male submitted "Birth to Corps" papers served the same purpose as a red herring in a mystery novel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_herring_(plot_device)
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ex10
Ok, to be fair. When I was in college (before the Way Corps, at a bonafide state university) and took some Psych classes, I had an assignment to write a paper entitled "Who Am I?"
It wasn't a freshman Psych class, it was upper level, but I honestly can't remember what year Psych class it was. I wrote the paper, still have a copy of it as a matter of fact. So, point being, when I went into the Way Corps and was asked to write an "Autobiography," it wasn't a red flag, or any such thing. Just routine, did it, (after all, I had done it once before) and all was well.
Call me naive, but it just seemed like an excercise in self awareness that might be neccessary for a leadership training program?
I know people have speculated much on who read the papers, their motives, etc. But it seems to me, that if everyone in the Way Corps had to write them, as we did in the 10th, and I know the 8th as well, that it would be way too much work for whoever was designated the task to go through them, and read them all. And then with evil intent in mind?
It's a stretch to me, to think somebody read them looking for victims. But whatever, I've been shocked before. :mellow:
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WordWolf
It's been reported that dirt from them was reported publicly about people if they quit or were fired.
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WordWolf
I forget if it was Dot who said that vpw had summoned her with intent to do what vpw intended to do in private,
and had her "Birth to the Corps" paper IN HIS HAND.
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waysider
Good point W.W.
I don't think VP looked through the papers looking for victims.
I think it was the other way around.
In other words, if he saw someone he was "interested" in, he had their information readily available.
It has been mentioned here on GSC that the CF&S class also contained a questionnaire which the instructor was supposed to collect from the students and place in a sealed envelope. The envelope was then sent directly to HQ.
I confirm this to be accurate.
There was no justifiably legitimate reason to conduct any sort of survey, much less one that did not meet validation standards.
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Twinky
EyesOpen: very wise to be guarded in what you wrote. See my note below.
Waysider: "red herring" occurred to me, too. Haven't heard this about the CF&S questionnaire before.
Ex10: I don't doubt that there could be some legitimate reason, like your autobio in college. Knowing what you have been rescued from and knowing who you are is important. But with the underbelly of TWI as now exposed, I just wonder if it had a double significance, as so much stuff to do with TWI did. My girlfriend who is now a Methodist minister trained for 3 years and had to write various essays and consider a lot of personal/emotional stuff in depth and discuss it with mentors, to see that she was suited to the ministry, but it wasn't an out-and-out expose of her life in an "autobiography" way.
WW: that's horrible about Dot. Maybe she will add something on this thread. It would be ideal to use as "dog returning to vomit" ammunition, when someone was kicked out M&A, to say that they had never fully renewed their minds to the Word in the area(s) they had disclosed.
My younger Corps had to prepare these autobios. Some of the Corps were a bit sensitive or guarded about some things in their past. I believe one or two had been told that they had not considered deeply enough and were told to write more detail (ie, more self-disclosure). But of course I don't know how much (or little) they had written before being prodded to write more.
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DontWorryBeHappy
hiya twinky!
i know for a fact that eyes other than vic's perused many of those supposedly "confidential" from birth to the corps essays!........when these "autobiographical essays" were first demanded from the corps, it was via direct commandment from vic himself, in the fall of 1979.......it was first "discussed" by vic at the first corps week which took place the previous month in new knoxville, at hq, august, 1979.........the doofus from okie and finnegan were sitting up on the stage with vic when this was first batted around.......in september, king okie, while at emporia, got into the whole "suggestion of a general is tantamount to a command" thing, and the command from der fuhrer vic was sent forth to all the in-residence corps, and then extended to all corps everywhere when finnegan figured he'd better keep pace with the doofus!.........the whole thing blew up at corps week, 1980, when vic walked off the stage in disgust, because there was rampant "non-compliance" with the "order", from a large number of corps grads, who had, for whatever reasons, not submitted their "essays"...........the doofus himself, finnegan, yours truly, and many other "leaders" included!.......the "mad scramble" to write and submit the time-wasting essays was on, along with the flurry of "letters of apology" to vic by those who were "guilty" of "disobedience"!
at the corps placement meetings in may of 1980, was the first time i heard this "strictly confidential" information mentioned by vic and the doofus, when discussion of various in-rez graduating and interim corps assignments for the upcoming year of 1980-81 were taking place, and vic's or king okie's "input" was based on information they had gleaned from their reading of the autobiographies of certain corps members whose assigments were under discussion at that time!........by the next corps placement meetings in may of 1981, corps coordinators from emporia and rome city were now mentioning information from autobiographies of in-residence corps, which they too were now obviously reading!!........and, such information now became "expected" from the in-residence corps coordinators at all the "root locales" whenever deemed "necessary" in order to make the "most appropriate" assignments for all the in-residence corps who were graduating or "going forth as leaders and workers" on their interim year assigments!
those of us "on-the-field leaders" were not given access to these "confidential" autobiographies during my time of involvement at the placement meetings from 1981-1986.........this "confidential" information was apparently "restricted" to bot members and corps coordinators only during those years.......but was readily available, as i said previously, whenever it was deemed "necessary" to making assignments for specific corps members, from the corps coordinators who were present at the placement meetings.
imo, these "confidential" essays were definitely used by vic, king okie, and the corps coordinators, at their discretion, to screen "candidates" who would provide good service to the various mogs and mogettes, whose "needs" included the servicing of their personal sexual pecadilloes!.......p*t l*nn admitted this to me personally in february, 1987, during the weekend she spent at my house, after being told by hq that i was "born again of the wrong seed", and wanting to "see for herself" if this "revelation" about me was indeed "true"!.......she also told me that doody moneyhands was providing the same "pimping service" for vic and king okie from the rome city campus!!!..........p*t repented, and "begged" me to help her "get through to john".......which i agreed to do, and which association with me eventually led to their being fired from twi on april 1, 1987!.......doody moneyhands has not repented to this day, and led many "lambs" to the slaughter from her ivory tower at rome city, including the young daughters of those who coordinated the family corps during the 1990's!!!........i wonder what boob and doody's current positions of "leadership" are at twi today???
so much for twi's "promise of confidentiality" regarding who was privvy to the personal information they were commanded by the mogs to provide, eh???..........how the information from the "from birth to the corps" essays was used, and who was "responsible" for reading them after 1986, i do not know.........maybe some of the current offshoot "leaders" who were corps coordinators during the years 1987 through 1998 could provide that information, since they're the ones who know???..........ask them twinky, and let us greasespotters know what their answers are!.......good luck!......................................peace.
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waterbuffalo
...ditto...what ex10 said...that's what I thought they were for.
It was a great exercise in self-awareness for me.
JL gave ours back when we graduated in 1980 something.
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Twinky
Thanks, DWBH, I thought that might be the case. May as well have issued the in rez corps with megaphones, or perhaps added a megaphone to the "What to Bring" list (LOL).
WB, glad you got yours back. Any intereresting information could well have been copied or noted, however.
Did anyone else get theirs back? If so, when - when you graduated, or as part of teh 10-year pack?
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waterbuffalo
Hey Twinky, sorry I didn't make that clear. The "we" was everyone in my corps and we were given the autobiographies back a few days before graduation. I threw mine away when cleaning out my file cabinets 20 yrs. later, though.
There were some more papers we'd written in our "10 Year Pack" also. JL said they decided not to do the 10 Yr. Pack anymore because they didn't want to hold on to that kind of information about people for that long.
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ex10
I just went through what I have left of my way corps files. I didn't find a copy of my "autobiography," which I don't care about anyway. It was pretty innocuous. But I do have my journals from 1978 (when I went WOW for the 1st time) to 1986, when I got disgusted and left the cult, that cover my "Way time."
Pretty interesting stuff. I have meetings, times, dates, what was said when by whom, documented. HMMMMM.....
I never cared about this stuff before, but now it's seems somehow, relevant.
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GrouchoMarxJr
Imagine that!...You mean, they betrayed our trust?...
These people were bottom feeders...what a bunch of lowlifes...
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excathedra
very interesting, don39
i do remember distinctly being told not to hold anything back. let it rip dirty details and everything with the express purpose (lol) to show how god had delivered you
in other words, the more detailed and disgusting your past was, the more you were delivered
or something like that
yuck makes me.....
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WhiteDove
Hey T sounds like you have enough material for a book
What the h*ll may as well.
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doojable
Okay - now some of this is fitting into place.
I didn't write any down and dirty details. I glazed over a large part of my life and wrote just enough to keep things in perspective. That may have saved me from a lot of crap in residence.
But - years later the local MOG-jerk came up to me and was trying to tell me how I was and why I was that way. All of a sudden he starts in on how my father was and what things happened to me as a child.
WTF!?
My mind was racing while I tried to figure out who I told this stuff to (no one) and who could have repeated it (no one.)
Then there was the momentary lapse of reason, "Revelation??? Ya think? Nah - couldn't be."
I think it occurred to me that some of my paper had been shared... I don't remember if I seriously considered it, but now it's all fitting together.
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ex10
Hey yeah. I have detailed notes, go figure.
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Tom Strange
Dear Ex10, please reconstruct your "from birth to the corps" essay and deliver it to me post haste! :bigsmile:
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Twinky
Hey Dooj. Well, you know about some other character that seemed to have read your autobio. What "level" was he, a BC? Glad this thread is giving you a little fresh insight, pi$$y though that may be.
's all about control.
Ex10: you may have some really weird stuff in your journals. They'd probably make interesting reading, with hindsight. Sort of their biography, that you wrote as their amanuensis.
I still have my journals, too, from in rez. It's embarrassing reading them. Such petty stuff seemed such a big deal. I seemed to spend a lot of time stressing over things that really didn't matter and awaiting deliverance.
And that's just what was written down...!
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rhino
I forgot about those journals ... it seemed mine was always SOS, different day .. ha
But maybe I'll go back if I can find them ... maybe there is some insight on how screwy it was ... :blink:
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excathedra
mine are long gone, but i'm a living testament of screwedupness lol
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JeffSjo
Dearest,
Methinks you are too self depricating.
(added in editing)
Wait, did I say that right? I mean that you seem too hard on yourself, all of us need some help after all!
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