I believe Rocky is correct. I do not think the woman has the ability to recognize any sinful practice in her own life.
Yes as many have noticed extreme behavior whenever anything approaches exposing sinful practices in her life - that's when the followers hit the road, people are dropped and bum rushed out of HQ, demoted etc
I believe the Bible describes this phenomenon as a "conscience seared with a hot iron".
Although to fool her followers and throw people off the scent she will label those of us here at Greasespot Cafe with that term who refuse to whitewash over evil.
I would like to protest some of the revisionist history I see here. This is a portion of a larger piece I posted here 10 years ago. It was removed from the board during the tight bandwidth days.
A PFAL’77 Story
This essay is called a PFAL’77 Story, and it relates directly to the very last public teaching of Dr. Victor Paul Wierwille, entitled “The Joy of Serving.” In studying this last teaching of Dr’s we see that the word “master” comes up quite a bit. By looking at his previous usage of this word, how Dr used it in his vocabulary, we can really see some electrifying truths. The big key here is the word “master” and we will eventually see it much deeper than we ever dreamed.
Please let me tell you my story about PFAL’77.
From 1976 to 1978 I worked at HQ in New Knoxville. In the weeks just prior to PFAL’77 an amazing event took place. All the staff regularly got together for lunch every weekday in those days. There was one particular BRC lunch, just one week before that class started, where Dr’s comments were so significant that I feel a need to type them out.
I’ve related what I heard at this meeting to a number of people, but I’ve only run into one person so far who was actually in attendance, and that’s Thomas Benner. A few months ago I was talking with him on the phone, and when the subject of those lunchroom comments of Dr’s came up, he immediately launched into his remembrances of Dr’s words. Thomas’ recollections were almost exactly the same as mine, as well as his appreciation for the significance of them. This was very encouraging to me that my memory of the event was pretty accurate.
Thomas has been pretty busy lately, but someday I should call him to help me beef up this story with more detail. Reconstructing past events from memory is no where near as accurate as printed materials or tapes. It’s much more sure to consult the record and refresh memory for important things. I have strongly endeavored to not rely on memory as many have erroneously done, but the details of some unrecorded events might be made more solid by some round about ways. For one, an individual’s memory may be checked by multiple witness testimony, as I reported here already for this lunchroom event. Plus if there are some traces of the event on record, that can be some further confirmation. Later I will show that this is the case for the lunchroom incident. So I proceed, albeit on the shaky ground of mere human memory.
The grand purpose of this story is not to establish doctrine, but to illuminate some of the background for a teaching of Dr’s that I will be talking about soon. This teaching has a rich history, so I’ll confine myself here in this Part 1 to the topic of the teaching’s origins. In Part 2 we can get into the teaching itself. In all there are four parts to this very important topic.
In early 1977, months before the lunchroom incident, the staff at HQ began to work on various projects to prepare for the PFAL’77 class coming up that summer. Different departments had different items to deal with at differing times. As the class date approached almost all departments had so many extra duties that everyone was expected to work an hour overtime each day, and at no extra pay, of course. Some people were working many overtime hours. We were all happy to participate.
It was fun to think we were taking part in the production of a “superior” version of the PFAL class. I had been on staff for about a year by then, and PFAL’77 seemed to me to be somewhat like the Rock of Ages both in preparation details and in importance. It was a very big deal to everyone. I especially was looking forward to seeing exactly what Dr might add or change to the new class. In those days I was concerned about what I thought were some non-fatal errors in the film class, and I wanted to see them corrected in this even better video class.
The appearance of Dr in the 1967 film class, juxtaposed with the disco styles of the day, was becoming embarrassingly obsolete to some of us. In addition to the often discussed tie-width and hair-wetness fashion factors that seemed to necessitate a redoing of the PFAL film, the newly available medium of video tape was far superior to 16 mm film in quality. We also figured that new Biblical research to upgrade the class would be a significant step ahead, because ten years of additional learning had taken place since the ‘67 filming. It was an exciting time to work on staff, as PFAL ‘77 got closer.
Several weeks before the class our daily overtime grew at times to two and three hours per day at times. I heard some people were putting in near 80 hour weeks, depending on their responsibilities.
At lunch one day, in the BRC basement, Dr announced that as part of his preparation for teaching the new class he was going to “take” the class for the first time. At that time he had only seen the first half hour of the ‘67 film class, so in order to prepare for teaching the same material again, Dr set up a schedule to watch the entire thing. Every day he’d show up at lunch and tell us which session he was in as he progressed through the class. Some days he did one session or two, other days he did only a part.
When Dr completed Session Five he reported to us that he had Christ in him, “the hope of glory” and we all cheered. Word went around that some staffers were doing up some calligraphy on a PFAL diploma for Dr, so that he could become an official “PFAL Grad” like us. Everyone was quite excited to see Dr take the class this way. It was a wonderful touch to see this as we all worked hard to prepare for PFAL’77. I say “all” in the sense that even though not all was totally perfect, we never voiced it, and it WAS pretty darn good how we all got along, especially compared to ten years later. These were still the “good old days” in many ways.
Then one day Dr showed up at lunch with a glum look on his face.
I’ll do my best here to paraphrase what he said, but I have no direct quotes. I’ll use double-double quotes ““thusly””to indicate this. For a few of Dr’s statements I can distinctly remember his exact phraseology. For some statements I can only remember the gist or the punch his words carried. But his overall mood and message at that pre-PFAL’77 lunchroom talk made such an impression that even today it is still quite memorable.
The mood Dr conveyed in facial expressions, vocal inflection, body language, and exact spoken words was a huge downer. I had never before seen Dr look or speak so negative. Later that year I saw Dr pretty down one day after Uncle Harry went into the hospital for the second time, just days before his death. That was the only other time I ever saw Dr exhibit such negativity of heart. Oh sure, I saw him blow his stack plenty of times, but I mean the discouraged or hurting kind of negativity. This lunchroom announcement was drastically different from the previous days of the fun PFAL review announcements we heard from Dr.
Dr said something like:
““I have something to say that probably will not please some people, but that they can just renew their minds to it, and learn to live with it.”“
I think he even said, or indicated that God had just told him something, and he was not too happy about it. Then he said something like:
““Sorry, but we’re going to have to cancel the PFAL’77 class!”“
Yikes! Everyone froze in the lunchroom. Did he really say that? This was one of the many questions many of us were thinking. How could this be? How could such a great undertaking be scuttled? Was Dr just testing us? Or did he really mean it? Was this was this something like the way Dr canceled the very first Way Corps, the zero-th Corps? Is Dr punishing us for something we did to fail him in preparation for this class? How could such an investment in people’s abundant sharing be thrown away? All these thoughts went through my mind, and I think many others too, in a few very long seconds.
So, with that opening statement, Dr. Wierwille REALLY got our attention. He then went on to explain. He said he was in something like session 9 or 10 and that it just hit him like a ton of bricks, that he could never teach that class again!
One near quote I remember is: ““That thing moves like greased lightning and I could never keep up with that pace again,”“ he said looking down and shaking his head from side to side saying silently “No, no, no”
He also went on to say that God had taught him some very special things as he was teaching that film class, and that there was no way anyone could replace it or duplicate it. The old film class would just have to do the job.
He said some things about the ‘67 film class filming as being done by revelation from God, and that there just was no revelation in 1977 from God to try and do it again. Dr left the distinct impression that the whole idea for doing PFAL’77 was of man, and not of God, whereas the ‘67 class was of God.
Dr basically told us that some people had talked him into doing up a replacement for the film class and that it was not God’s idea at all. This was a bit of a shocker to me. I had assumed that it was being done by revelation, and here was Dr saying no, it wasn’t.
I eventually came to know and understand years later that prior to 1982, the year Dr stepped down as president, some of Dr’s top men would at times talk him into things he really didn’t want to do. At this BRC lunch I specifically heard him complain of this. Dr’s top men had talked him into committing the resources of the ministry for PFAL ‘77 being a video replacement for the ‘67 film class.
You could hear a pin drop in that room as Dr related all these things.
Then he paused (maybe getting the next revelation) and said:
““We can still go forth with the Muncie plans and do PFAL’77 as a supplement for grads, but there will never be a replacement for the original film class.”“
With these words there was an audible sigh of relief from just about everybody in the lunchroom. I think most of us were keyed in on the first half of that sentence, that the Muncie plans would still continue. But we only faintly heard the last half about PFAL’77 being only a grad supplement, and the non-repeatability of the “official” class.
(((An interesting side note: the video tapes they made of PFAL’77 seem to have rarely or even never surfaced. Just a few years ago my friend Mark Gluckin told me that the only video tapes he still wanted for his collection were those PFAL’77 videos. After 1988 I went headlong into intense bootleg tape activity for a full ten years, duplicating every tape I could find, but for me too the PFAL’77 tapes seemed to have disappeared! Dr gave Mark all sorts of access to tapes, more than anyone else, yet he didn’t have these. And I am unaware of any ministry use of them.)))
So, Dr changed the course of the ship, right there in that lunchroom meeting. He also announced this change in a very dramatic and memorable way. In so doing he highlighted some key remarks of his about that original film class that are useful to our learning today. Specifically, CLONE CLASSES CAN’T CUT IT! Gosh I wish every splinter group leader and the big stump leaders could hear this!
It’s only by mastering what God taught Dr and Dr taught us in writing that we will REALLY be able to serve God’s Word to others. This is the thrust of Dr’s very last teaching, “The Joy of Serving.” All attempts I’ve seen or heard of in splinter and stump groups running clone classes have had relatively minor results. Minor compared to the “good old days.”
I could be wrong about this world-wide, but in my sphere of awareness, there has not been a single grad of any clone classes to rise up to the level of a WOW or a Corps candidate or a committed, serving clergy. All the big leaders are old PFAL grads, and the clone grads seem to be not inspired to drop everything and move the Word like Dr inspired HIS grads. If you know of one such hot clone grad, check on him or her in a couple years, and see how they are still cooking.
Back to my story:
A few days later, after the lunchroom announcement, at the next Sunday night service, Dr repeated a few of those same remarks he had made in the BRC lunchroom. For one, he says on tape that re-teaching PFAL is impossible. Those remarks appear in a couple of places on the SNS tape from that evening mixed in with the announcements and in the teaching. It was a GREAT teaching! It is SNS tape #865 from June 12, 1977.
Two years after the lunchroom incident that same SNS teaching was presented in its final written form in the May/June 1979 Way Magazine. It is this magazine article, and it’s connections to those lunchroom comments by Dr, and it’s connections to Dr’s final instructions to master PFAL that I want to bring to your attention. Next, we’ll see the written magazine form of that teaching.
I started this story mentioning the word “master” and how it occurs often in Dr’s very last teaching. The title of the magazine article and the SNS tape is “Masters of the Word.” With this teaching we have a tremendous handle on exactly what Dr meant when he used the word “master” in his final instructions to us that he spoke in his last teaching “The Joy of Serving.” .
.
.
"All attempts I’ve seen or heard of in splinter and stump groups running clone classes have had relatively minor results. Minor compared to the “good old days.”
I could be wrong about this world-wide, but in my sphere of awareness, there has not been a single grad of any clone classes to rise up to the level of a WOW or a Corps candidate or a committed, serving clergy. All the big leaders are old PFAL grads, and the clone grads seem to be not inspired to drop everything and move the Word like Dr inspired HIS grads. If you know of one such hot clone grad, check on him or her in a couple years, and see how they are still cooking."
One common fallacy in logic is to confuse CORRELATION with CAUSATION.
Example 1: Hot chocolate causes death by freezing. People drink a LOT more hot chocolate certain months of the year, and those months also see an increase in people freezing to death. Coincidence? Obviously not! It's plain that the hot chocolate is causing the freezing.
Example 2: Modern pfal attempts don't have the same effect on society as the old one did in the 1970s. In the 1970s, legitimate, rad Christians who were getting things done were recruited into twi, and turned into advertising shills for pfal. They did their thing (were rad Christians) and (falsely but with good intentions) claimed the reason they were so rad was due to twi and pfal, and to be equally rad, one had to take the class. Society has moved on since then. The rad Christians are in completely different forms now, with virtually none connected with splinter groups. But the difference in the results is seen as "the class isn't really the same and that's why the results differ so much." The real answer is that "the class" was more of the "ground" and not the "figure" of the paining. Rad Christians made the difference in twi, and the classes were more window-dressing and artificial benchmarks to measure progress.
For those who forgot, "The Joy of Serving" was a commercial for pfal. "You have to serve people something-so serve them the 3 levels of the class, and outside of twi, there's no real answers for people." (The End.)
I eventually came to know and understand years later that prior to 1982, the year Dr stepped down as president, some of Dr’s top men would at times talk him into things he really didn’t want to do. At this BRC lunch I specifically heard him complain of this. Dr’s top men had talked him into committing the resources of the ministry for PFAL ‘77 being a video replacement for the ‘67 film class.
I eventually came to know that wierwille plagiarized wholesale from B.G. Leonard's class, "The Gifts of the Spirit."On page 90 of Mrs. W's book is Leonard and his students after the February 1953 class.......seven new students, and vpw is in the back row. On page 91 is Leonard's class in June/July 1953........mrs. wierwille and don wierwille are there with seven other students from Van Wert, twenty-five students in all. [Note: vpw attended this class also, but was not included with the *new students* in the class photo.]
Then, wiewille drove back to Ohio and started signing up family, friends and neighbors for "his" class in October 1953.
Page 100..............
"The people who had had been part of B.G. Leonard's class on 'The Gifts of the Spirit' were considered graduates and not included in the rosters of Dr. Wierwille's classes."
Wierwille's class WAS plagiarized from B.G. Leonard.........DOCUMENTED in mrs. wierwille's book.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Page 92........ "B.G. built people's believing by his tremendous, God-given ability as a teacher. On top of that, he was truly a one-man show. He was so full of life that it was exciting just to be around him. The deliverance that people received was right in the middle of the action of his ministering.
We were given a giant step in knowledge by Brother Leonard......"
Even mrs. w's book tries to distance her husband from Leonard's work.......page 92 and 93 describes an incident in 1954 of the fortune-teller in Chicago. Page 94 and 95 detail Albert Cliffe and his invitation to the Spiritual 40 Club in January 1953........again, out of sequence. And page 96-98, she gives the background on Bishop K. C. Pillai and Eastern culture........again, meanderings of the past. Obfuscation.....to keep others from connecting the dots of plagiarism.
Whenever it was determined PFAL 77 was a royal flop - I do recall one of “the spin doctors “ (no actual degree is required for that) made an announcement from the stage (in between sessions ) - which I now think was a feeble attempt to redirect folks from thinking that this would replace the “original “ class...he asked did Paul need to rewrite Ephesians?
While his statement may be chock-full of bull$hit it also raises another question. Did Paul plagiarize Ephesians?
Whenever it was determined PFAL 77 was a royal flop - I do recall one of “the spin doctors “ (no actual degree is required for that) made an announcement from the stage (in between sessions ) - which I now think was a feeble attempt to redirect folks from thinking that this would replace the “original “ class...he asked did Paul need to rewrite Ephesians?
While his statement may be chock-full of bull$hit it also raises another question. Did Paul plagiarize Ephesians?
T-Bone, good question!! Did he, or did he not?? Regarding PFAL 77, I think Sky may be right; VPW could Bulls$$t all he wanted; I think VPW knew he couldn't teach a live class, because he didn't k now how. He couldn't hide behind a coffee cup filled with liquor, for once. I think he may have reached a point of no return; he knew that he didn't know Jack about the Bible. If he had taught a live class, he might have been exposed, for the fraud that he was. I think a lot of people may have left, and taken their ABS with them. We can speculate from now, until the world ends, as to why PFAL 77 wasn't taught live, but in MHO, it boils down to money. VPW was a Con-Man man, but he wasn't stupid. He did not want the flow of ABS to stop. Therefore, he had to keep pretending he was a MOG, and a great Bible teacher, to insure that the money keep flowing to him.
T-Bone, good question!! Did he, or did he not?? ...(snip)
Actually I was being sarcastic - i was mocking the assumption hidden in the statement made by the person on stage , to show my contempt for what he suggested:
He asked “did Paul need to rewrite Ephesians?”
I see that now as another subtle attempt by the goons in power to elevate PFAL to the status of the Holy Bible...and so my intention in saying “Did Paul plagiarize Ephesians?” was really alluding to the fact that wierwille plagiarized when he put together PFAL.
I do apologize if my sarcasm did not come across as such - though I tried to indicate I was joking by using the goofy devil in sunglasses ( ) at the end of my statement...my opinion of the Bible is - by far - a lot higher than that of wierwille’s work - and do not wish to disparage the scriptures in any way.
Though I must also add - the way I look at the Bible has changed quit a bit since I left TWI - - not to get off topic on this thread, I’ll make a shameless plug for a thread I started in doctrinal “Concerning the Bible: Confessions of a Former Fundamentalist” where you can read about that departure by myself and others - you and other Grease Spotters are welcome to contribute also - telling about your journey thus far after leaving behind the TWI mindset.
Actually I was being sarcastic - i was mocking the assumption hidden in the statement made by the person on stage , to show my contempt for what he suggested:
He asked “did Paul need to rewrite Ephesians?”
I see that now as another subtle attempt by the goons in power to elevate PFAL to the status of the Holy Bible...and so my intention in saying “Did Paul plagiarize Ephesians?” was really alluding to the fact that wierwille plagiarized when he put together PFAL.
I do apologize if my sarcasm did not come across as such - though I tried to indicate I was joking by using the goofy devil in sunglasses ( ) at the end of my statement...my opinion of the Bible is - by far - a lot higher than that of wierwille’s work - and do not wish to disparage the scriptures in any way.
Though I must also add - the way I look at the Bible has changed quit a bit since I left TWI - - not to get off topic on this thread, I’ll make a shameless plug for a thread I started in doctrinal “Concerning the Bible: Confessions of a Former Fundamentalist” where you can read about that departure by myself and others - you and other Grease Spotters are welcome to contribute also - telling about your journey thus far after leaving behind the TWI mindset.
T-Bone, my mistake!! Overall, my life has been so much better, since leaving TWI. Why did I wait so long to leave??!!
T-Bone, good question!! Did he, or did he not?? Regarding PFAL 77, I think Sky may be right; VPW could Bulls$$t all he wanted; I think VPW knew he couldn't teach a live class, because he didn't k now how. He couldn't hide behind a coffee cup filled with liquor, for once. I think he may have reached a point of no return; he knew that he didn't know Jack about the Bible. If he had taught a live class, he might have been exposed, for the fraud that he was. I think a lot of people may have left, and taken their ABS with them. We can speculate from now, until the world ends, as to why PFAL 77 wasn't taught live, but in MHO, it boils down to money. VPW was a Con-Man man, but he wasn't stupid. He did not want the flow of ABS to stop. Therefore, he had to keep pretending he was a MOG, and a great Bible teacher, to insure that the money keep flowing to him.
I think that I should state my position more clearly......
VPW *could teach* a live class.......if he put in the time and discipline, but he was lazy as documenting throughout his childhood. He always took shortcuts and plagiarized from others who HAD put in the work. And, his narcissistic tendencies didn't help matters.........in his mind, he was entitled to "lord over others" and do as he damn well pleased. So, now at this PFAL '77 class, wierwille was age 60 and......had even less discipline in his life.
If he wanted to sit at his desk, sip on his Drambuie-coffee and teach PFAL '77....... then that's what he was going to do.
Updating the pfal class for future generations be damned. The narcissist had taught it "perfect" once..........that was enough.
I think that I should state my position more clearly......
VPW *could teach* a live class.......if he put in the time and discipline, but he was lazy as documenting throughout his childhood. He always took shortcuts and plagiarized from others who HAD put in the work. And, his narcissistic tendencies didn't help matters.........in his mind, he was entitled to "lord over others" and do as he damn well pleased. So, now at this PFAL '77 class, wierwille was age 60 and......had even less discipline in his life.
If he wanted to sit at his desk, sip on his Drambuie-coffee and teach PFAL '77....... then that's what he was going to do.
Updating the pfal class for future generations be damned. The narcissist had taught it "perfect" once..........that was enough.
I eventually came to know that wierwille plagiarized wholesale from B.G. Leonard's class, "The Gifts of the Spirit."On page 90 of Mrs. W's book is Leonard and his students after the February 1953 class.......seven new students, and vpw is in the back row. On page 91 is Leonard's class in June/July 1953........mrs. wierwille and don wierwille are there with seven other students from Van Wert, twenty-five students in all. [Note: vpw attended this class also, but was not included with the *new students* in the class photo.]
Then, wiewille drove back to Ohio and started signing up family, friends and neighbors for "his" class in October 1953.
Page 100..............
"The people who had had been part of B.G. Leonard's class on 'The Gifts of the Spirit' were considered graduates and not included in the rosters of Dr. Wierwille's classes."
Wierwille's class WAS plagiarized from B.G. Leonard.........DOCUMENTED in mrs. wierwille's book.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Page 92........ "B.G. built people's believing by his tremendous, God-given ability as a teacher. On top of that, he was truly a one-man show. He was so full of life that it was exciting just to be around him. The deliverance that people received was right in the middle of the action of his ministering.
We were given a giant step in knowledge by Brother Leonard......"
Even mrs. w's book tries to distance her husband from Leonard's work.......page 92 and 93 describes an incident in 1954 of the fortune-teller in Chicago. Page 94 and 95 detail Albert Cliffe and his invitation to the Spiritual 40 Club in January 1953........again, out of sequence. And page 96-98, she gives the background on Bishop K. C. Pillai and Eastern culture........again, meanderings of the past. Obfuscation.....to keep others from connecting the dots of plagiarism.
IN OTHER WORDS..........Mrs. Wierwille's book jumps around DELIBERATELY TRYING TO DISTANCE VP WIERWILLE FROM LEONARD:
HERE is the timeline and logical progression of events........but then, it becomes obvious that wierwille took Leonard's class (twice), hijacked it and ran with it as his own in October 1953. The sequence of events and shows clearly how wierwille stole this class-based ministry from Leonard in 1953.
Page 90.........B.G. Leonard's class in Calgary, Alberta........February 1953 [wierwille was a student]
Page 91.........B.G. Leonard's class in June/July 1953........Mrs. W and Don were new students, along with seven others from Van Wert
Page 92.........2 more paragraphs on B.G. and ..."given a giant step in knowledge by Brother Leonard."
Page 99.........In October 1953.....wierwille teaches same class in Ohio, class photo in book
Page 100......"A syllabus for the class was formed, based on the inspired teachings at the first class. This syllabus was used for each class taught thereafter, enlarged and revised........" [wierwille didn't present anyone with a syllabus, because he had to put space between "his" class and the one Leonard had taught him.]
I would like to protest some of the revisionist history I see here. ..........
Go Ahead, Mike...............protest as much as you like
But how are you going to protest FIRST-HAND, EYE WITNESS ACCOUNTS and DOCUMENTATION from Mrs. Wierwille?
She was the dutiful wife who gave her accounting of events.
She documented many things that stand juxtaposed to vpw's snappy bloviating.
She, too, sat in Leonard's class......and then, her husband rushed home and started signing up people for that Oct 1953 class.
Idolizing wierwille doesn't change twi's historical reckoning of its theft and plagiarism. TWI was a SPLINTER from Leonard's work and class-based ministry.
It is an undeniable FACT.
On 11/14/2017 at 7:00 AM, skyrider said:
Page 100..........
"The people who had been part of B.G. Leonard's class on 'The Gifts of the Spirit' were considered graduates and not included in the rosters of Dr. Wierwille's classes."
Protest? Revisionist history much? Oh yeah.....it's Mike! Nevermind! LOL!
Skyrider is far more accurate and far less disinformed, Mike. Dictor paul was far too dumb, drunk, and distracted to do much other than serve his own perverted lusts. For me, it became more and more obvious from the first week I "entered" the corpse. By piffle'77, I was so wrapped up in my corpse assignment for the 2 weeks ,("Bless Patrol" Security for all the in-residence dorm "students") that I could have cared less what crap dic was putting out on that stage. As a matter of fact, I attended only 4 teaching sessions the entire time, all in the first week. They were so smarmy, schmaltzy, self-serving and vapid, that I preferred 18-20 hrs a day "doing my job" to sitting in a POS Winegarner/Rivenbark Production to blatantly assuage dic's uncontrolled malignant, paranoid narcissism, overtly kiss his moggie ass, and establish themselves as the truest purveyors of dic's "heart". I cared not one whit about all the bullshit excuses, phoney "revelations", and political shenanigans behind the scenes. I was having too much fun "on-the-field" moving da woid as a State WOW Coordinator in MI, to give a crap about all that BS and palace intrigue. Frankly, I was so glad to NOT be at HQ that I was just not really into the Bob'n'Rosie production of dic's drunken, depraved, lunacy.
Because I was a region guy of the "home region" of HQ, I was far more involved behind the scenes of AC'79 than I was at piffle'77. And, it was no fun!! Piffle was just an ego trip made worth the money the false hype and fraudulent promotion squeezed out of the several thousand "students" who paid whatever the exorbitant price was for a product which was NEVER delivered. And, it only got worse as the years slowly progressed as dic rapidly declined into the haze of substance abuse, alcoholism, and the delusions of his mental illnesses. It was less than 8 years between Piffle'77 and the day dic died. As I look back, my time in TWIt was half a lifetime for me when I left. Now, it's only a quarter! Time flies when you're having fun!!................peace all.
with recent events of rape/abuse by Harvey Wienstein, Roy Moore, Al Franken, and media apologizing for Bill Clinton, It's time that the media re-examine allegations by Wierwille and Martindale to the public.
with recent events of rape/abuse by Harvey Wienstein, Roy Moore, Al Franken, and media apologizing for Bill Clinton, It's time that the media re-examine allegations by Wierwille and Martindale to the public.
So... was "having too much fun" as a region guy around that same time was something significantly more than that?
(a rhetorical question, no answer expected)
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skyrider
Those of us who exited twi, AND have now done extensive background research on the cult (as opposed to being carried away by youthful groupthink and peer pressure).....maintain strong convictions of t
T-Bone
After thinking about one poster’s recent attempt at revising history...or was it creative writing....I dunno - whatever the he11 you want to call his perspective on PFAL ‘77 - - I thought I’d give it
skyrider
Thanks guys….. life is good, all is well. It’s good to see GSC continuing to sound the alarm as we move into the 2023 new year. Even though twi tries to guilt advanced class grads and corps to *
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chockfull
Yes as many have noticed extreme behavior whenever anything approaches exposing sinful practices in her life - that's when the followers hit the road, people are dropped and bum rushed out of HQ, demoted etc
I believe the Bible describes this phenomenon as a "conscience seared with a hot iron".
Although to fool her followers and throw people off the scent she will label those of us here at Greasespot Cafe with that term who refuse to whitewash over evil.
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Mike
I would like to protest some of the revisionist history I see here. This is a portion of a larger piece I posted here 10 years ago. It was removed from the board during the tight bandwidth days.
A PFAL’77 Story
This essay is called a PFAL’77 Story, and it relates directly to the very last public teaching of Dr. Victor Paul Wierwille, entitled “The Joy of Serving.” In studying this last teaching of Dr’s we see that the word “master” comes up quite a bit. By looking at his previous usage of this word, how Dr used it in his vocabulary, we can really see some electrifying truths. The big key here is the word “master” and we will eventually see it much deeper than we ever dreamed.
Please let me tell you my story about PFAL’77.
From 1976 to 1978 I worked at HQ in New Knoxville. In the weeks just prior to PFAL’77 an amazing event took place. All the staff regularly got together for lunch every weekday in those days. There was one particular BRC lunch, just one week before that class started, where Dr’s comments were so significant that I feel a need to type them out.
I’ve related what I heard at this meeting to a number of people, but I’ve only run into one person so far who was actually in attendance, and that’s Thomas Benner. A few months ago I was talking with him on the phone, and when the subject of those lunchroom comments of Dr’s came up, he immediately launched into his remembrances of Dr’s words. Thomas’ recollections were almost exactly the same as mine, as well as his appreciation for the significance of them. This was very encouraging to me that my memory of the event was pretty accurate.
Thomas has been pretty busy lately, but someday I should call him to help me beef up this story with more detail. Reconstructing past events from memory is no where near as accurate as printed materials or tapes. It’s much more sure to consult the record and refresh memory for important things. I have strongly endeavored to not rely on memory as many have erroneously done, but the details of some unrecorded events might be made more solid by some round about ways. For one, an individual’s memory may be checked by multiple witness testimony, as I reported here already for this lunchroom event. Plus if there are some traces of the event on record, that can be some further confirmation. Later I will show that this is the case for the lunchroom incident. So I proceed, albeit on the shaky ground of mere human memory.
The grand purpose of this story is not to establish doctrine, but to illuminate some of the background for a teaching of Dr’s that I will be talking about soon. This teaching has a rich history, so I’ll confine myself here in this Part 1 to the topic of the teaching’s origins. In Part 2 we can get into the teaching itself. In all there are four parts to this very important topic.
In early 1977, months before the lunchroom incident, the staff at HQ began to work on various projects to prepare for the PFAL’77 class coming up that summer. Different departments had different items to deal with at differing times. As the class date approached almost all departments had so many extra duties that everyone was expected to work an hour overtime each day, and at no extra pay, of course. Some people were working many overtime hours. We were all happy to participate.
It was fun to think we were taking part in the production of a “superior” version of the PFAL class. I had been on staff for about a year by then, and PFAL’77 seemed to me to be somewhat like the Rock of Ages both in preparation details and in importance. It was a very big deal to everyone. I especially was looking forward to seeing exactly what Dr might add or change to the new class. In those days I was concerned about what I thought were some non-fatal errors in the film class, and I wanted to see them corrected in this even better video class.
The appearance of Dr in the 1967 film class, juxtaposed with the disco styles of the day, was becoming embarrassingly obsolete to some of us. In addition to the often discussed tie-width and hair-wetness fashion factors that seemed to necessitate a redoing of the PFAL film, the newly available medium of video tape was far superior to 16 mm film in quality. We also figured that new Biblical research to upgrade the class would be a significant step ahead, because ten years of additional learning had taken place since the ‘67 filming. It was an exciting time to work on staff, as PFAL ‘77 got closer.
Several weeks before the class our daily overtime grew at times to two and three hours per day at times. I heard some people were putting in near 80 hour weeks, depending on their responsibilities.
At lunch one day, in the BRC basement, Dr announced that as part of his preparation for teaching the new class he was going to “take” the class for the first time. At that time he had only seen the first half hour of the ‘67 film class, so in order to prepare for teaching the same material again, Dr set up a schedule to watch the entire thing. Every day he’d show up at lunch and tell us which session he was in as he progressed through the class. Some days he did one session or two, other days he did only a part.
When Dr completed Session Five he reported to us that he had Christ in him, “the hope of glory” and we all cheered. Word went around that some staffers were doing up some calligraphy on a PFAL diploma for Dr, so that he could become an official “PFAL Grad” like us. Everyone was quite excited to see Dr take the class this way. It was a wonderful touch to see this as we all worked hard to prepare for PFAL’77. I say “all” in the sense that even though not all was totally perfect, we never voiced it, and it WAS pretty darn good how we all got along, especially compared to ten years later. These were still the “good old days” in many ways.
Then one day Dr showed up at lunch with a glum look on his face.
I’ll do my best here to paraphrase what he said, but I have no direct quotes. I’ll use double-double quotes ““thusly”” to indicate this. For a few of Dr’s statements I can distinctly remember his exact phraseology. For some statements I can only remember the gist or the punch his words carried. But his overall mood and message at that pre-PFAL’77 lunchroom talk made such an impression that even today it is still quite memorable.
The mood Dr conveyed in facial expressions, vocal inflection, body language, and exact spoken words was a huge downer. I had never before seen Dr look or speak so negative. Later that year I saw Dr pretty down one day after Uncle Harry went into the hospital for the second time, just days before his death. That was the only other time I ever saw Dr exhibit such negativity of heart. Oh sure, I saw him blow his stack plenty of times, but I mean the discouraged or hurting kind of negativity. This lunchroom announcement was drastically different from the previous days of the fun PFAL review announcements we heard from Dr.
Dr said something like:
““I have something to say that probably will not please some people, but that they can just renew their minds to it, and learn to live with it.”“
I think he even said, or indicated that God had just told him something, and he was not too happy about it. Then he said something like:
““Sorry, but we’re going to have to cancel the PFAL’77 class!”“
Yikes! Everyone froze in the lunchroom. Did he really say that? This was one of the many questions many of us were thinking. How could this be? How could such a great undertaking be scuttled? Was Dr just testing us? Or did he really mean it? Was this was this something like the way Dr canceled the very first Way Corps, the zero-th Corps? Is Dr punishing us for something we did to fail him in preparation for this class? How could such an investment in people’s abundant sharing be thrown away? All these thoughts went through my mind, and I think many others too, in a few very long seconds.
So, with that opening statement, Dr. Wierwille REALLY got our attention. He then went on to explain. He said he was in something like session 9 or 10 and that it just hit him like a ton of bricks, that he could never teach that class again!
One near quote I remember is: ““That thing moves like greased lightning and I could never keep up with that pace again,”“ he said looking down and shaking his head from side to side saying silently “No, no, no”
He also went on to say that God had taught him some very special things as he was teaching that film class, and that there was no way anyone could replace it or duplicate it. The old film class would just have to do the job.
He said some things about the ‘67 film class filming as being done by revelation from God, and that there just was no revelation in 1977 from God to try and do it again. Dr left the distinct impression that the whole idea for doing PFAL’77 was of man, and not of God, whereas the ‘67 class was of God.
Dr basically told us that some people had talked him into doing up a replacement for the film class and that it was not God’s idea at all. This was a bit of a shocker to me. I had assumed that it was being done by revelation, and here was Dr saying no, it wasn’t.
I eventually came to know and understand years later that prior to 1982, the year Dr stepped down as president, some of Dr’s top men would at times talk him into things he really didn’t want to do. At this BRC lunch I specifically heard him complain of this. Dr’s top men had talked him into committing the resources of the ministry for PFAL ‘77 being a video replacement for the ‘67 film class.
You could hear a pin drop in that room as Dr related all these things.
Then he paused (maybe getting the next revelation) and said:
““We can still go forth with the Muncie plans and do PFAL’77 as a supplement for grads, but there will never be a replacement for the original film class.”“
With these words there was an audible sigh of relief from just about everybody in the lunchroom. I think most of us were keyed in on the first half of that sentence, that the Muncie plans would still continue. But we only faintly heard the last half about PFAL’77 being only a grad supplement, and the non-repeatability of the “official” class.
(((An interesting side note: the video tapes they made of PFAL’77 seem to have rarely or even never surfaced. Just a few years ago my friend Mark Gluckin told me that the only video tapes he still wanted for his collection were those PFAL’77 videos. After 1988 I went headlong into intense bootleg tape activity for a full ten years, duplicating every tape I could find, but for me too the PFAL’77 tapes seemed to have disappeared! Dr gave Mark all sorts of access to tapes, more than anyone else, yet he didn’t have these. And I am unaware of any ministry use of them.)))
So, Dr changed the course of the ship, right there in that lunchroom meeting. He also announced this change in a very dramatic and memorable way. In so doing he highlighted some key remarks of his about that original film class that are useful to our learning today. Specifically, CLONE CLASSES CAN’T CUT IT! Gosh I wish every splinter group leader and the big stump leaders could hear this!
It’s only by mastering what God taught Dr and Dr taught us in writing that we will REALLY be able to serve God’s Word to others. This is the thrust of Dr’s very last teaching, “The Joy of Serving.” All attempts I’ve seen or heard of in splinter and stump groups running clone classes have had relatively minor results. Minor compared to the “good old days.”
I could be wrong about this world-wide, but in my sphere of awareness, there has not been a single grad of any clone classes to rise up to the level of a WOW or a Corps candidate or a committed, serving clergy. All the big leaders are old PFAL grads, and the clone grads seem to be not inspired to drop everything and move the Word like Dr inspired HIS grads. If you know of one such hot clone grad, check on him or her in a couple years, and see how they are still cooking.
Back to my story:
A few days later, after the lunchroom announcement, at the next Sunday night service, Dr repeated a few of those same remarks he had made in the BRC lunchroom. For one, he says on tape that re-teaching PFAL is impossible. Those remarks appear in a couple of places on the SNS tape from that evening mixed in with the announcements and in the teaching. It was a GREAT teaching! It is SNS tape #865 from June 12, 1977.
Two years after the lunchroom incident that same SNS teaching was presented in its final written form in the May/June 1979 Way Magazine. It is this magazine article, and it’s connections to those lunchroom comments by Dr, and it’s connections to Dr’s final instructions to master PFAL that I want to bring to your attention. Next, we’ll see the written magazine form of that teaching.
I started this story mentioning the word “master” and how it occurs often in Dr’s very last teaching. The title of the magazine article and the SNS tape is “Masters of the Word.” With this teaching we have a tremendous handle on exactly what Dr meant when he used the word “master” in his final instructions to us that he spoke in his last teaching “The Joy of Serving.”
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T-Bone
sorry - you lost me after
revisionist history
...it's also possible one is lost in an alternate universe
Edited by T-Boneoptions
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JayDee
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
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WordWolf
"All attempts I’ve seen or heard of in splinter and stump groups running clone classes have had relatively minor results. Minor compared to the “good old days.”
I could be wrong about this world-wide, but in my sphere of awareness, there has not been a single grad of any clone classes to rise up to the level of a WOW or a Corps candidate or a committed, serving clergy. All the big leaders are old PFAL grads, and the clone grads seem to be not inspired to drop everything and move the Word like Dr inspired HIS grads. If you know of one such hot clone grad, check on him or her in a couple years, and see how they are still cooking."
One common fallacy in logic is to confuse CORRELATION with CAUSATION.
Example 1: Hot chocolate causes death by freezing. People drink a LOT more hot chocolate certain months of the year, and those months also see an increase in people freezing to death. Coincidence? Obviously not! It's plain that the hot chocolate is causing the freezing.
Example 2: Modern pfal attempts don't have the same effect on society as the old one did in the 1970s. In the 1970s, legitimate, rad Christians who were getting things done were recruited into twi, and turned into advertising shills for pfal. They did their thing (were rad Christians) and (falsely but with good intentions) claimed the reason they were so rad was due to twi and pfal, and to be equally rad, one had to take the class. Society has moved on since then. The rad Christians are in completely different forms now, with virtually none connected with splinter groups. But the difference in the results is seen as "the class isn't really the same and that's why the results differ so much." The real answer is that "the class" was more of the "ground" and not the "figure" of the paining. Rad Christians made the difference in twi, and the classes were more window-dressing and artificial benchmarks to measure progress.
For those who forgot, "The Joy of Serving" was a commercial for pfal. "You have to serve people something-so serve them the 3 levels of the class, and outside of twi, there's no real answers for people." (The End.)
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dmiller
- - - - > > > I wanted to delete this post, but it looks like I can't.
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dmiller
Mike -- - It's good to "see" you again.
It's starting to be like the old times here on the GSC.
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Twinky
Hahahahahaha! PFAL was the biggest "clone class" going. A stolen class from someone who'd genuinely put it together. Oh, the irony!!
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johniam
Hey, Mike. Good to see your, uh, (screen name) face.
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skyrider
Wierwille blaming others.................surely not. LOL
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I eventually came to know that wierwille plagiarized wholesale from B.G. Leonard's class, "The Gifts of the Spirit." On page 90 of Mrs. W's book is Leonard and his students after the February 1953 class.......seven new students, and vpw is in the back row. On page 91 is Leonard's class in June/July 1953........mrs. wierwille and don wierwille are there with seven other students from Van Wert, twenty-five students in all. [Note: vpw attended this class also, but was not included with the *new students* in the class photo.]
Then, wiewille drove back to Ohio and started signing up family, friends and neighbors for "his" class in October 1953.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Page 92........ "B.G. built people's believing by his tremendous, God-given ability as a teacher. On top of that, he was truly a one-man show. He was so full of life that it was exciting just to be around him. The deliverance that people received was right in the middle of the action of his ministering.
We were given a giant step in knowledge by Brother Leonard......"
Even mrs. w's book tries to distance her husband from Leonard's work.......page 92 and 93 describes an incident in 1954 of the fortune-teller in Chicago. Page 94 and 95 detail Albert Cliffe and his invitation to the Spiritual 40 Club in January 1953........again, out of sequence. And page 96-98, she gives the background on Bishop K. C. Pillai and Eastern culture........again, meanderings of the past. Obfuscation.....to keep others from connecting the dots of plagiarism.
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T-Bone
Whenever it was determined PFAL 77 was a royal flop - I do recall one of “the spin doctors “ (no actual degree is required for that) made an announcement from the stage (in between sessions ) - which I now think was a feeble attempt to redirect folks from thinking that this would replace the “original “ class...he asked did Paul need to rewrite Ephesians?
While his statement may be chock-full of bull$hit it also raises another question. Did Paul plagiarize Ephesians?
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Bolshevik
Masters of the Word.
Alternate Universes.
Like a hand in a glove.
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Grace Valerie Claire
T-Bone, good question!! Did he, or did he not?? Regarding PFAL 77, I think Sky may be right; VPW could Bulls$$t all he wanted; I think VPW knew he couldn't teach a live class, because he didn't k now how. He couldn't hide behind a coffee cup filled with liquor, for once. I think he may have reached a point of no return; he knew that he didn't know Jack about the Bible. If he had taught a live class, he might have been exposed, for the fraud that he was. I think a lot of people may have left, and taken their ABS with them. We can speculate from now, until the world ends, as to why PFAL 77 wasn't taught live, but in MHO, it boils down to money. VPW was a Con-Man man, but he wasn't stupid. He did not want the flow of ABS to stop. Therefore, he had to keep pretending he was a MOG, and a great Bible teacher, to insure that the money keep flowing to him.
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T-Bone
Actually I was being sarcastic - i was mocking the assumption hidden in the statement made by the person on stage , to show my contempt for what he suggested:
He asked “did Paul need to rewrite Ephesians?”
I see that now as another subtle attempt by the goons in power to elevate PFAL to the status of the Holy Bible...and so my intention in saying “Did Paul plagiarize Ephesians?” was really alluding to the fact that wierwille plagiarized when he put together PFAL.
I do apologize if my sarcasm did not come across as such - though I tried to indicate I was joking by using the goofy devil in sunglasses (
) at the end of my statement...my opinion of the Bible is - by far - a lot higher than that of wierwille’s work - and do not wish to disparage the scriptures in any way.
Though I must also add - the way I look at the Bible has changed quit a bit since I left TWI - - not to get off topic on this thread, I’ll make a shameless plug for a thread I started in doctrinal “Concerning the Bible: Confessions of a Former Fundamentalist” where you can read about that departure by myself and others - you and other Grease Spotters are welcome to contribute also - telling about your journey thus far after leaving behind the TWI mindset.
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Grace Valerie Claire
T-Bone, my mistake!! Overall, my life has been so much better, since leaving TWI. Why did I wait so long to leave??!!
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skyrider
And, lest we forget.................the 1967 pfal class, originally, had TWO OTHER SEGMENTS in it.
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skyrider
I think that I should state my position more clearly......
VPW *could teach* a live class.......if he put in the time and discipline, but he was lazy as documenting throughout his childhood. He always took shortcuts and plagiarized from others who HAD put in the work. And, his narcissistic tendencies didn't help matters.........in his mind, he was entitled to "lord over others" and do as he damn well pleased. So, now at this PFAL '77 class, wierwille was age 60 and......had even less discipline in his life.
If he wanted to sit at his desk, sip on his Drambuie-coffee and teach PFAL '77....... then that's what he was going to do.
Updating the pfal class for future generations be damned. The narcissist had taught it "perfect" once..........that was enough.
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Grace Valerie Claire
Sky, thanks!!
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skyrider
IN OTHER WORDS..........Mrs. Wierwille's book jumps around DELIBERATELY TRYING TO DISTANCE VP WIERWILLE FROM LEONARD:
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skyrider
Go Ahead, Mike...............protest as much as you like
But how are you going to protest FIRST-HAND, EYE WITNESS ACCOUNTS and DOCUMENTATION from Mrs. Wierwille?
Idolizing wierwille doesn't change twi's historical reckoning of its theft and plagiarism. TWI was a SPLINTER from Leonard's work and class-based ministry.
It is an undeniable FACT.
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DontWorryBeHappy
Protest? Revisionist history much? Oh yeah.....it's Mike! Nevermind! LOL!
Skyrider is far more accurate and far less disinformed, Mike. Dictor paul was far too dumb, drunk, and distracted to do much other than serve his own perverted lusts. For me, it became more and more obvious from the first week I "entered" the corpse. By piffle'77, I was so wrapped up in my corpse assignment for the 2 weeks ,("Bless Patrol" Security for all the in-residence dorm "students") that I could have cared less what crap dic was putting out on that stage. As a matter of fact, I attended only 4 teaching sessions the entire time, all in the first week. They were so smarmy, schmaltzy, self-serving and vapid, that I preferred 18-20 hrs a day "doing my job" to sitting in a POS Winegarner/Rivenbark Production to blatantly assuage dic's uncontrolled malignant, paranoid narcissism, overtly kiss his moggie ass, and establish themselves as the truest purveyors of dic's "heart". I cared not one whit about all the bullshit excuses, phoney "revelations", and political shenanigans behind the scenes. I was having too much fun "on-the-field" moving da woid as a State WOW Coordinator in MI, to give a crap about all that BS and palace intrigue. Frankly, I was so glad to NOT be at HQ that I was just not really into the Bob'n'Rosie production of dic's drunken, depraved, lunacy.
Because I was a region guy of the "home region" of HQ, I was far more involved behind the scenes of AC'79 than I was at piffle'77. And, it was no fun!! Piffle was just an ego trip made worth the money the false hype and fraudulent promotion squeezed out of the several thousand "students" who paid whatever the exorbitant price was for a product which was NEVER delivered. And, it only got worse as the years slowly progressed as dic rapidly declined into the haze of substance abuse, alcoholism, and the delusions of his mental illnesses. It was less than 8 years between Piffle'77 and the day dic died. As I look back, my time in TWIt was half a lifetime for me when I left. Now, it's only a quarter! Time flies when you're having fun!!................peace all.
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Thomas Loy Bumgarner
with recent events of rape/abuse by Harvey Wienstein, Roy Moore, Al Franken, and media apologizing for Bill Clinton, It's time that the media re-examine allegations by Wierwille and Martindale to the public.
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Rocky
How do you propose to get them to do so?
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TLC
So... was "having too much fun" as a region guy around that same time was something significantly more than that?
(a rhetorical question, no answer expected)
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