Dependency: Twi's Sinister Plan

[skyrider]

In pfal, wierwille laid out his plan.

1) Search the scriptures....with no private interpretation.

2) By the end of the class, vpw is interjecting and tweaking verses.

3) Be ye transformed by the renewing of the mind....spiritual growth.

4) By the end of the class, wierwille says "I'll tell you what to think if its right or not."

5) God loves a cheerful giver......freely ye have received, freely give.

6) By the end of the class, if you don't faithfully give to twi...God won't acknowledge you.

7) Jesus Christ is The Way, the truth and the life.

8) By the end of the class, you MUST stand with twi to walk with your heavenly Father.

9) The holy spirit will guide you into all truth.

10) By the end of the class.....just write "The Teacher Box 328 New Knoxville, OH."

The bait-and-switch was right there in the foundational class. Nevermind the intermediate, or the advanced class, or going WOW Ambassador, or Fellow-Laborers, or Way Corps. Wierwille pulled it off in twelve sessions, 33 hours of "twist and shout" halleluahs. Of course, most who took "the class" were already pumped and primed with months of anticipation for how great this class was gonna be. And, no questions could be asked, cognitive dissonance, peer pressure, the climax of speaking in tongues, obedient follow-up, etc....and the dependency on twi took root.

Many tangents in wierwille's "off-the-cuff" ramblings......like people forsake the man of God before they forsake the Word, or stand with those who taught you the Word, and the dependency deepens. Subtle commitments of the heart are made in silence.....as the class rolls on. Unknowingly, one is re-directing his allegience to a sinister and deceptive plan. And, how many pfal-ers were brought to twi's trough by a cute, flirty girl or dashing young man? So many things in play....is it any wonder how one's defenses were down?

YET....I believe......that the true sinister deception was known to wierwille. He was 51 years old when pfal was filmed and had "head-faked" enough competitors thru the years to manipulate his game. From seminars, to itinerant speakers, to Leonard's class....wierwille was forging a way forward to his cult's throne where devotees would pay homage to his "greatness" a lifetime. I mean, really, how often (after pfal) were twi followers encouraged and motivated to daily go to their lord and mediator between God and man, the Lord Jesus Christ? Yeah.....me neither.

Dependency on twi was the goal.

Get 'em paying faithfully and weekly.

Get 'em reading ONLY pfal books (for the next three months).

Get 'em in a follow-up class as quickly as possible.

Get 'em to denounce family and friends that might "talk them outta the word."

Get 'em out witnessing and standing with twi brothers and sisters.

Get 'em to go WOW and leave hometowns and their past behind.

Get 'em FULLY DEPENDENT on twi.....spiritually, emotionally, psychologically.

Even if they're destitute, with hardly a $20 bill in their pocket......there's still the "family of God."

Maybe, wierwille was just an incompetent, bumbling preacher who led us astray.....but I really don't think so.

More likely, he was a calculating, manipulative narcissist who wanted to pull the levers of control over people.

With every step he took, he was manuevering his way into a position of authority.....at all costs.

He didn't even care about his own children when he deeded "the farm" over to twi's posterity and non-profit status.

And, the motorcoaches, the planes, the motorcycles, the abuse of women.....dying of cancer, running to geer, etc.

His life of shame comes out......after his death (and all over the internet).

MORE and MORE are still breaking free of twi's chains of dependency......

And, some may never quite figure it out.

Sad.

edit: typos

Edited July 9, 2012 by skyrider

[excathedra]

absolute dependency -- even the conversations during the class breaks were orchestrated

and when i was taking the class and visited the girls' college wow way home where the doctor was staying (sort of, he was also hunting in PA with howard -- for some birds and college wows) to surprise us on the last night of class, etc.,

i know i'm not using sentence structure very well. he came to the girls' college way home to shower and i was visiting and walked past the bathroom where the door was wide open and he was standing buck naked blowing drying his hair -- he turned and smiled at me -- full monty

i freaked and my undershepherder (wow coordinator) told me that he is so spiritual that the flesh means nothing

a little later on they asked me if i wanted to go to the coach where they were parked to pheasant hunt. i declined. he caught up with me a few years later, sorry to say

[skyrider]

absolute dependency -- even the conversations during the class breaks were orchestrated

Yeah.....each undershepherd-er was instructed to be close by their class attendee during breaks.

Monitoring and surveillance was the m.o. during breaks and after each night's segments.

Four nights a week......and checked-on (monitored) over the weekends.

And, even if you were perplexed by a question.....they steered you with a non-answer.

excie......wierwille was scum, as this predator kept after you.

[waysider]

Undershepherding....designed with one goal in mind...to keep people (and yourself) in a hyped up state so the indoctrination process could become deeply rooted.

Don't let them stray too far away from the herd. They'll start to consider things from a rational point of view and possibly move on with their life. Can't have that. Doesn't fare very well for the financial health of the organization.

[skyrider]

Undershepherding....designed with one goal in mind...to keep people (and yourself) in a hyped up state so the indoctrination process could become deeply rooted.

Don't let them stray too far away from the herd. They'll start to consider things from a rational point of view and possibly move on with their life. Can't have that. Doesn't fare very well for the financial health of the organization.

When I took at twi's indoctrinational insanity and "how did I get fooled"......

I remind myself that I was 19 years old when twigs were simple, uplifting, and short.

And, twi activities were only a subset of my college days.

BUT.....step by step, the road downward was paved by manipulative leaders hundreds of miles away.

The "undershepherding" was designed to herd me into twi's corral and control me.

Commitment to twi.......usurped commitment to family, education, and careers.

Commitment to twi.......was deemed more important that good parenting.

Commitment to twi.......was perceived far more vital that career advancement.

Commitment to twi.......was garnering rewards and heavenly crowns.

It takes a village.....of controlled messaging to control the masses.

<_<

[OldSkool]

Commitment to twi.......was perceived far more vital that career advancement.

I think this point is revealing. Instead of encouraging folks into career advancement, which would yield greater ABS for the way international, they discouraged it. Makes me wonder if Wierwille had a greater lust for power than he did for money. Instead of milking greater donations from percentages of advancing salaries, he opted to limit career advancement so he could control people and have them "serve" for the advancement of the organization. Of course perhaps that made him more money in the short term. Long term results have proven epic fail. But perhaps he was never really concerned about that.

[waysider]

People were expendable. That's why there was always such an inordinately aggresive drive to enlist new recruits. Classes like Witnessing and Undershepherding were designed to promote quantity, not quality.

Page 2

Our goal in witnessing and undershepherding

The basic reason we witness is to help people into the classes on Power For Abundant Living....

Edited July 11, 2012 by waysider

[OldSkool]

Classes like Witnessing and Undershepherding were designed to promote quantity, not quality.

I suppose that VPW wouldn't have wanted educated masses at his feet. Too much critical thinking would have been a bad thing.

[skyrider]

I think this point is revealing. Instead of encouraging folks into career advancement, which would yield greater ABS for the way international, they discouraged it.

EVERYTHING about twi was sleight of hand......most had their eyes on the magician's performance

and not concerned with the trickery involved.

Twi "promoted" the body, soul, spirit......but the spirit/twi dynamic is nearly 90% of its agenda.

Twi "promoted" husband/wife marriage.......but mogs were known to be sexually agressive with other men's wives.

Twi "promoted" the individual family.......but disected its components at every turn and undermined its unity.

Twi "promoted" educational prowess.........as long as one ALREADY had that harvard degree before coming to twi.

Twi "promoted" health and non-smoking......as wierwille drank his drambuie-coffee and chain smoked in closed mtgs.

TWI MOGS: Rules and regs for thee, but not for me.

[waysider]

The thing about undershepherding that escaped me for a long time is that it's designed to indoctrinate the the one doing the undershepherding every bit as much as it's designed to indoctrinate the recruit. Not only do you feel like you've become a vital part of the ministry effort, but, you find yourself exercising cognitive dissonance so that when the recruit raises a legitimate question, you've already rationalized and rehearsed the answer.

edit ...spelling

Edited July 11, 2012 by waysider

[penworks]

The thing about undershepherding that escaped me for a long time is that it's designed to indoctrinate the the one doing the undershepherding every bit as much as it's designed to indoctrinate the recruit. Not only do you feel like you've become a vital part of the ministry effort, but, you find yourself exercising cognitive dissonance so that when the recruit raises a legitimate question, you've already rationalized and rehearsed the answer.

edit ...spelling

Excellent point.

[chockfull]

When I took at twi's indoctrinational insanity and "how did I get fooled"......

I remind myself that I was 19 years old when twigs were simple, uplifting, and short.

And, twi activities were only a subset of my college days.

BUT.....step by step, the road downward was paved by manipulative leaders hundreds of miles away.

The "undershepherding" was designed to herd me into twi's corral and control me.

Commitment to twi.......usurped commitment to family, education, and careers.

Commitment to twi.......was deemed more important that good parenting.

Commitment to twi.......was perceived far more vital that career advancement.

Commitment to twi.......was garnering rewards and heavenly crowns.

It takes a village.....of controlled messaging to control the masses.

<_<

For some reason this post gave me flashbacks. I've been noticing lately the emotional damage lately in my life wreaked by TWI's leaders and followers. It is real and tangible. It is nothing that putting on a Pollyanna face (or twig face) can fix, that just pushes it down deeper. I sure understand more deeply today Jesus teaching of "beware of the leaven of the Pharisees". Anyone getting sucked into this insipid cult needs to shock themselves into awareness before they are drawn too deep into the currents to swim.

[chockfull]

EVERYTHING about twi was sleight of hand......most had their eyes on the magician's performance

and not concerned with the trickery involved.

Twi "promoted" the body, soul, spirit......but the spirit/twi dynamic is nearly 90% of its agenda.

Twi "promoted" husband/wife marriage.......but mogs were known to be sexually agressive with other men's wives.

Twi "promoted" the individual family.......but disected its components at every turn and undermined its unity.

Twi "promoted" educational prowess.........as long as one ALREADY had that harvard degree before coming to twi.

Twi "promoted" health and non-smoking......as wierwille drank his drambuie-coffee and chain smoked in closed mtgs.

TWI MOGS: Rules and regs for thee, but not for me.

To me it was the unwritten messages sent from above and the vast dichotomy between them and the public "promotion" proclamations that were really the worst. To really promote body, soul, spirit is to promote a full and rich life, in which you have time to develop your body and soul - like the hobbies we showed off in residence. You don't have your whole week with every spare minute sucked up by meaningless rote meetings where people regurgitate already boring STS teachings and Way mag articles. You have time to exercise, to prepare healthy food to eat, to have hobbies in the community and the friends that surround them. TWI may have promoted body, soul, spirit with their mouth, but their actions were opposite.

Same with marriages. I would have to say I've seen more marriages broken up by TWI clergy than held together or saved. It's always a commitment to TWI thing, coupled with suspicion and accusations towards whichever in the couple would share less with the leader. Like a prisoner of war scenario with rewards for snitching on other prisoners. In fact, that was the case in general, not just marriages.

Individual family? Yeah, right. You don't have time to go to your kids sports games, you have to be at a Branch meeting on Saturday, otherwise where's your commitment? The more responsibility you have in leadership, the more meetings are added. And those meetings are just a forum for some egotist to put their stamp on things. In fact, the higher the level of the meeting, the more really wacky $h1t I've heard in that type of meeting. God I would hate to be around the BOD and their paranoia laced little side comments. I've never met a more sin conscious group of people than TWI leadership. And they are the ones who should be strongest in grace.

Education? With no student loans? And college prices rising exponentially year after year? NO, you don't promote education. Do you even have a college scholarship fund like ANY of the community orgs around? No. How do people on Staff's kids do it? They staff parents go on welfare so that the kids can get Pell Grants and go for free (well, not really free - my tax dollars pay for that cr@p). TWI pays staff people less than the poverty level so that their kids qualify. That org realistically would be labeled the least supportive of education possible by an independant evaluator.

Health? No time to exercise, all your exercise time is spent making up reports about your weekly activities, which ironically includes mandated exercise. No money to buy healthier food. No time to prepare it. Cheap coffee, drinks with sugar and crappy processed snacks at all meetings and classes. Little sleep. High stress. The best choice I ever made for my health was leaving TWI.

MOG Rules? Sickening. Disgusting. Just like Jesus wrote about the Pharisees - they place heavy burdens on people they won't themselves lift with their little finger. Then they criticize the burdened down for being overwhelmed and not able to handle it, while they live a life of comfort, low morality, and decadence. Very sick. God will remember this and repay.

[excathedra]

excie......wierwille was scum, as this predator kept after you.

what was that about -- a conquest ?

after "the incident" it never happened again -- i thinkg because i was no fun -- like comatose

[skyrider]

For some reason this post gave me flashbacks. I've been noticing lately the emotional damage lately in my life wreaked by TWI's leaders and followers. It is real and tangible. It is nothing that putting on a Pollyanna face (or twig face) can fix, that just pushes it down deeper.

Chockfull.......yeah, some things are layered in deep. I understand what you're saying.

From what I see, it takes diligent perception and discernment to uproot the damage and plant a new garden.

what was that about -- a conquest ?

after "the incident" it never happened again -- i thinkg because i was no fun -- like comatose

Wierwille's actions and predatory ways fill in the puzzle that so many of us never saw.

Most are only knowledgeable of his stage/teaching persona. Very little else.

[skyrider]

The bait-and-switch was right there in the foundational class. Nevermind the intermediate, or the advanced class, or going WOW Ambassador, or Fellow-Laborers, or Way Corps. Wierwille pulled it off in twelve sessions, 33 hours of "twist and shout" halleluahs.

Although wierwille taught Leonard's class (later, known as pfal) in October 1953, he stayed on the Van Wert church payroll until August 1957. And, a few years later, the twi operation moved to the wierwille farm homestead. Throughout these years, 1958-1966, twi's history documents a list of live pfal classes taught by vpw......but no concerted movement. Classes were run, yes.....and then, people blending back into the fabric of their everyday lives.

Classes taught by wierwille, the teacher himself, (/sarc) did not guarantee committed followers.

So, the film class would generate buzz that wierwille, himself, could not? Or was the manipulation of "marching orders of trained instructors" going forth [WOWs and Corps] able to reinforce a movement that wierwille could not?

Young and vibrant souls were searching for something bigger than themselves, something to escape their miserable lives of discontent, and an identity of worthiness. The Jesus Movement was on the coasts and spreading inland. The commune livestyle was cool and hip. Enter: some guitar-playing hippies like Donnie F. and the dots connect.....of course, twi could tap the youth and bring them to hq for "summer schools and all." No great revelation there. Just simple observation, really.

It probably goes without saying.....wierwille and his twi-cult needed the youth more than the youth needed them. <_<

[excathedra]

i agree about the youth

i was searching and also thinking about joining the peace corps or doing something for humanity

then the way came along on my college campus

[Kit Sober]

I suppose that VPW wouldn't have wanted educated masses at his feet. Too much critical thinking would have been a bad thing.

So very long ago my then young son said the same thing, and I pooh-poohed him away into obedience and destruction of self (Can God ever forgive me to the extent He can correct my wrong? I don't know but I pray daily for the restoration of his soul.)

What Skyrider said at the beginning, and the points so many others have made -- so very perceptive. If only we had seen it then. If only we had been able to avoid the snares laid for us. So many tortured souls, wasted lives. It will be good to see God's justice for these most wicked sins perpetrated upon such precious people.

I believe that the Nicolaitanes who God hates committed this very self same act of overcoming people (Nike-victory, laos-people). And that we will get to see a performance of God's perfect justice, I have no doubt.

[allswellhere99]

I've watched friends be manipulated, brain-washed, and their pockets picked for 20 some years now by The Way. It is a corrupt, money stealing organization ... period.

[excathedra]

hello allswell