Philosopher Bertrand Russell quote (after devastation of WWI):
Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth — more than ruin, more even than death. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible; thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habits; thought is anarchic and lawless, indifferent to authority, careless of the well-tried wisdom of the ages. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid…Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man.
Freedom of the mind requires not only, or not even specially, the absence of legal constraints but the presence of alternative thoughts. The most successful tyranny is not the one that uses force to assure uniformity but the one that removes the awareness of other possibilities.
Freedom of the mind requires not only, or not even specially, the absence of legal constraints but the presence of alternative thoughts. The most successful tyranny is not the one that uses force to assure uniformity but the one that removes the awareness of other possibilities.
And we know (from having examined our experiences and the wacky things twi tried to get us to do, like put ourselves in mental prisons to keep us locked up and continually producing new (class) sales and 15% tithers) we CAN go much farther/further than we were led in that sinister cult.
It all starts with heeding one of the most important things Einstein said:
Why do they fear us? They fear we will have our own thoughts and speak up for ourselves. They fear we will become independent of their branding and no longer be subjugated to their will. They fear we will question their authority over us and be relegated to the dustbin of history. They fear we will stand up for ourselves and start banding together. They fear we will become stronger and their influence will become weaker. They fear we will use our power against them as they fall further into irrelevance. They fear that we will awaken others to the deception that they perpetuate. They fear our free-thinking and tossing aside the burdens of fear and guilt. They fear that we are no longer captive to their authority.
On 4/18/2023 at 1:55 AM, Rocky said:
Imagine responsibly... or boldly.
Some twi-followers [enablers] stayed fixated with wierwille/pfal throughout their whole lives.... not developing their own thoughts of autonomy and speaking for themselves. Then, there are those who got involved around 1973 and are STILL subjugated to the herd-mentality after 50 years!! How can these people ignore the authoritarian rule over them and be contented in this subordination? They shun individual responsibility welcoming overlords to lead the way for them.... even though it's a wayward path.
IMAGINE what a path of individual responsibility and sovereignty would look like..... choices and decisions based on individual freedom, financial stability and equity, interests and hobbies outside the realm of the cult, upward mobility in career and professional life, possibly family values and traditions passed down to another generation or two, social networking on multiple levels, neighbor and community involvement and a life well-lived. OR.... be a life-long salesman and advocate for a cult that disposes people, bullies with authoritarian mandates, threatens expulsion, cripples development, undermines opportunities of advancement, toxic to marital relationships, silences and ostracizes its dissidents, and hides in the shadows of their own flim-flam history.
No wonder exoduses happen every 10-15 years.... as one generation passes thru the gauntlet and another one enters. With today's internet, I believe that the followers are awakening more quickly than before. Don't travel the road with twi.... don't drive [spiritually] drunk. It can be fatal.
Twi is a shell of its former self. It is aging out. Their "headquarters" is like a retirement community where 70-year olds are sitting at desks doing 28-hours per week for a pittance paycheck to supplement their social security monthly check... while young bucks mow the grass and manicure the flower beds. On Sundays, a select-few "teachers" are given the responsibility to READ the pre-scripted sermon authorized by rosalie and donna. It's a ruse. No wonder the field involvement has been decimated in most states.
It's worse than those non-profit organizations who skim off 90% of proceeds to go to "administrative costs" [ie - payroll, relatives living off the "non-profit status" of the tax code] because twi doesn't even give back 10% to a needy cause. They spit out a useless teaching tape each week to keep the indoctrination flowing. Woe unto them that will be held accountable for this scam.
IMAGINE what a path of individual responsibility and sovereignty would look like..... choices and decisions based on individual freedom, financial stability and equity, interests and hobbies outside the realm of the cult, upward mobility in career and professional life, possibly family values and traditions passed down to another generation or two, social networking on multiple levels, neighbor and community involvement and a life well-lived. OR.... be a life-long salesman and advocate for a cult that disposes people, bullies with authoritarian mandates, threatens expulsion, cripples development, undermines opportunities of advancement, toxic to marital relationships, silences and ostracizes its dissidents, and hides in the shadows of their own flim-flam history.
An insightful reflection indeed.
To me, it's clear this particular cult is locked into a social framework based on fear of having its cash-flow severely diminished. When its followers break the chains in their minds... well, I envision stories (fiction) to provide encouragement to break those chains.
As wierwille's twi grew in the 1970's, it made a quantum leap from the 5th corps to the 6th corps. From the numbers I remember, the 5th corps had 75 graduates.... whereas, the 6th corps started in Emporia with near 340 corps. It was a massive leap in numbers and could not be trained at headquarters, so the trustees searched for a location and took out a second mortgage/loan to acquire the Emporia campus. Along with this risk.... twi was ill-equipped to handle the free-rolling, rowdy individuals that were part of this 6th corps influx. Thus, heavy-handed measures came into play.
One of my big contentions with corps training was that it was obsessed with obedience. Far too much emphasis was placed on following leadership..... rather than diligence or spiritual vigilance. Why the excessive need for obedience? Control. Corps coordinators made it a dominant priority to rein corps into a herd-mentality. In other words, twi FEARED individual thought (and questioning authority). It is far easier to rule by fear than to rule with love. At one point, they shut the corps program down with an ultimatum..... OBEY or LEAVE.
Why couldn't they gather the body of corps together for an open dialogue? Why, even today, does twi give GSC the *silent treatment* after 20+ years? For the same reasons that wierwille highlighted certain verses of scripture in pfal and ignored others. He was working towards a manufactured outcome. Remember his little "story" in pfal when wierwille talks about "The sower and the seed?" And, now Maggie, wierwille asks, "What do you think the good seed represents?" And, Snowball Pete, "What do you think this good seed is?" Wierwille's point.....STOP THINKING about what you think it means and keep reading. Yet, time and again, wierwille injects his thinking into other verses as the class unfolds.
It wasn't only the things twi highlighted thru the years that were relevant, but what things THEY DISMISSED and MEMORY-HOLED that spoke volumes. We came to pfal or corps training as individuals..... but graduated as a part of wierwille's "crack troops" or corps grads. Where in the scriptures does Jesus specifically call the men who followed him as "my disciples" in the possessive term? Yet, wierwille brands his corps as cattle.... "my corps." The corps letters were littered with this group-inclusive terminology.
The Way International fear us.
Why do they fear us? They fear we will have our own thoughts and speak up for ourselves. They fear we will become independent of their branding and no longer be subjugated to their will. They fear we will question their authority over us and relegated to the dustbin of history. They fear we will stand up for ourselves and start banding together. They fear we will become stronger and their influence will become weaker. They fear we will use our power against them as they fall further into irrelevance. They fear that we will awaken others to the deception that they perpetuate. They fear our free-thinking and tossing aside the burdens of fear and guilt. They fear that we are no longer captive to their authority. They fear we are independent.
Philosopher Bertrand Russell quote (after devastation of WWI):
Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth — more than ruin, more even than death. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible; thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habits; thought is anarchic and lawless, indifferent to authority, careless of the well-tried wisdom of the ages. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid…Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man.
What the leadership fears is the one child in the audience that speaks loudly “the empire has no clothes”.
By intimidation and fear, wierwille manipulated us into suppressing our thoughts/questions. In pfal, we were to hold our questions in abeyance until the final session.... after all the hoopla and "celebration" of speaking in tongues. How many people presented their list of questions at the end of this class? Very, very few.... and THAT was the point.
At the advanced class, wierwille flooded our brain cells with an overload of information.... a set of new retemories, none dare call it conspiracy, the thirteenth tribe, the illuminati, marxist minstrels, possession tapes and accounts, witches and the occult, the 16 keys to walking by the spirit, etc. All of these tangents were designed to overwhelm us and intimidate us. Who were we to question the vast knowledge and wisdom of someone who "had spent his life researching biblical truths and the devil's realm?" We were novices and therefore needed to "stay meek" to this elevated insight and instruction. The advanced class was designed with a tight, rigid structure to keep all questioning far away.
And, the corps training was the same. Hundreds of tangents of topics were introduced so that we would "be equipped to go forth in areas of concern, interest and need." Wherever the ministry (cough) needed to manage or leverage their power and influence in an area that would tap into another abs-source of year-after-year revenue, we were sent. Obedient corps were given the prized areas of activity (college towns) while the less-enthusiastic corps were assigned to outlying small populations and dying towns/cities. It didn't take long to see the two-tier system of favoritism that was dished out to well-connected corps.
BUT.... as years go by, and youth fades into adulthood, one begins to explore his/her own thoughts on the situation at hand. The wierwille-mystique begins to fade (especially with his early death at age 68).... and one is free to explore thoughts that were shelved for years. How could wierwille be "the man of God" and a drunkard? Amidst all the serial plagiarism, most all of this material was stolen and then tweaked for consumption to twi-followers. How is that godly? The thoughts and questions keep coming.... so you keep probing deeper into the cavern of your thought processes. As a man of the flesh, was wierwille indeed a FALSE TEACHER?
Once you've reached that point.... now, you begin the journey of true exploration.
Once you are awakened.... you are no longer selling the illusions.
When this happens.... you are removed and ostracized.
Unless you had removed yourself already. For me, the removal was in 1986, 37 years ago.
7 hours ago, skyrider said:
Once you've reached that point.... now, you begin the journey of true exploration.
I started THAT journey in the early 1990s. My employer incentivized taking the bus to work. I started reading and exploring during said commutes by bus. I'm quite thankful.
7 hours ago, skyrider said:
At the advanced class, wierwille flooded our brain cells with an overload of information.... a set of new retemories, none dare call it conspiracy, the thirteenth tribe, the illuminati, marxist minstrels, possession tapes and accounts, witches and the occult, the 16 keys to walking by the spirit, etc. All of these tangents were designed to overwhelm us and intimidate us. Who were we to question the vast knowledge and wisdom of someone who "had spent his life researching biblical truths and the devil's realm?" We were novices and therefore needed to "stay meek" to this elevated insight and instruction. The advanced class was designed with a tight, rigid structure to keep all questioning far away.
Thefirehose of falsehoodis apropagandatechnique in which a large number of messages are broadcast rapidly, repetitively, and continuously over multiple channels (such asnewsandsocial media) without regard for truth or consistency.
Because how can someone encountering such a firehose cope well enough to figure out what's truth or consistent?
Propagandais communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or usingloaded languageto produce an emotional rather than a rational response to the information that is being presented.[1]Propaganda can be found in a wide variety of different contexts.[2]
Quote
In the 20th century, the English termpropagandawas often associated with amanipulativeapproach, but historically, propaganda has been a neutral descriptive term of any material that promotes certain opinions orideologies.
IOW, we were inundated with propaganda and had no chance, in the moment, to sort it out or critically analyze any of it.
Once you are awakened.... you are no longer selling the illusions.
When this happens.... you are removed and ostracized.
All these leaders fear only one thing. The loss of their perceived power which they revel in telling themselves about their great calling from God and their unique ability and position to “save the ministry”.
Their god is their position and that is what they worship lauding their position over others.
Yeah with a just God they will be cleaning windshields at intersections at the return of Jesus Christ.
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T-Bone
Freedom of the mind requires not only, or not even specially, the absence of legal constraints but the presence of alternative thoughts. The most successful tyranny is not the one that uses force to assure uniformity but the one that removes the awareness of other possibilities.
From: The Closing of the American Mind by Allan Bloom
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Rocky
Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards. - Kierkegaard
Thankfully, we examine our lives in order to make best use of what time we have remaining. -- Me/Rocky
And I don't care if they're afraid of me or not.
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Rocky
And we know (from having examined our experiences and the wacky things twi tried to get us to do, like put ourselves in mental prisons to keep us locked up and continually producing new (class) sales and 15% tithers) we CAN go much farther/further than we were led in that sinister cult.
It all starts with heeding one of the most important things Einstein said:
Imagine responsibly... or boldly.
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skyrider
Some twi-followers [enablers] stayed fixated with wierwille/pfal throughout their whole lives.... not developing their own thoughts of autonomy and speaking for themselves. Then, there are those who got involved around 1973 and are STILL subjugated to the herd-mentality after 50 years!! How can these people ignore the authoritarian rule over them and be contented in this subordination? They shun individual responsibility welcoming overlords to lead the way for them.... even though it's a wayward path.
IMAGINE what a path of individual responsibility and sovereignty would look like..... choices and decisions based on individual freedom, financial stability and equity, interests and hobbies outside the realm of the cult, upward mobility in career and professional life, possibly family values and traditions passed down to another generation or two, social networking on multiple levels, neighbor and community involvement and a life well-lived. OR.... be a life-long salesman and advocate for a cult that disposes people, bullies with authoritarian mandates, threatens expulsion, cripples development, undermines opportunities of advancement, toxic to marital relationships, silences and ostracizes its dissidents, and hides in the shadows of their own flim-flam history.
No wonder exoduses happen every 10-15 years.... as one generation passes thru the gauntlet and another one enters. With today's internet, I believe that the followers are awakening more quickly than before. Don't travel the road with twi.... don't drive [spiritually] drunk. It can be fatal.
Twi is a shell of its former self. It is aging out. Their "headquarters" is like a retirement community where 70-year olds are sitting at desks doing 28-hours per week for a pittance paycheck to supplement their social security monthly check... while young bucks mow the grass and manicure the flower beds. On Sundays, a select-few "teachers" are given the responsibility to READ the pre-scripted sermon authorized by rosalie and donna. It's a ruse. No wonder the field involvement has been decimated in most states.
It's worse than those non-profit organizations who skim off 90% of proceeds to go to "administrative costs" [ie - payroll, relatives living off the "non-profit status" of the tax code] because twi doesn't even give back 10% to a needy cause. They spit out a useless teaching tape each week to keep the indoctrination flowing. Woe unto them that will be held accountable for this scam.
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Rocky
An insightful reflection indeed.
To me, it's clear this particular cult is locked into a social framework based on fear of having its cash-flow severely diminished. When its followers break the chains in their minds... well, I envision stories (fiction) to provide encouragement to break those chains.
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chockfull
What the leadership fears is the one child in the audience that speaks loudly “the empire has no clothes”.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emperor's_New_Clothes
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skyrider
The adults were held captive to fear.
The child was not. The child spoke out.
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skyrider
Exploration of Thought / Exploration of Questions
By intimidation and fear, wierwille manipulated us into suppressing our thoughts/questions. In pfal, we were to hold our questions in abeyance until the final session.... after all the hoopla and "celebration" of speaking in tongues. How many people presented their list of questions at the end of this class? Very, very few.... and THAT was the point.
At the advanced class, wierwille flooded our brain cells with an overload of information.... a set of new retemories, none dare call it conspiracy, the thirteenth tribe, the illuminati, marxist minstrels, possession tapes and accounts, witches and the occult, the 16 keys to walking by the spirit, etc. All of these tangents were designed to overwhelm us and intimidate us. Who were we to question the vast knowledge and wisdom of someone who "had spent his life researching biblical truths and the devil's realm?" We were novices and therefore needed to "stay meek" to this elevated insight and instruction. The advanced class was designed with a tight, rigid structure to keep all questioning far away.
And, the corps training was the same. Hundreds of tangents of topics were introduced so that we would "be equipped to go forth in areas of concern, interest and need." Wherever the ministry (cough) needed to manage or leverage their power and influence in an area that would tap into another abs-source of year-after-year revenue, we were sent. Obedient corps were given the prized areas of activity (college towns) while the less-enthusiastic corps were assigned to outlying small populations and dying towns/cities. It didn't take long to see the two-tier system of favoritism that was dished out to well-connected corps.
BUT.... as years go by, and youth fades into adulthood, one begins to explore his/her own thoughts on the situation at hand. The wierwille-mystique begins to fade (especially with his early death at age 68).... and one is free to explore thoughts that were shelved for years. How could wierwille be "the man of God" and a drunkard? Amidst all the serial plagiarism, most all of this material was stolen and then tweaked for consumption to twi-followers. How is that godly? The thoughts and questions keep coming.... so you keep probing deeper into the cavern of your thought processes. As a man of the flesh, was wierwille indeed a FALSE TEACHER?
Once you've reached that point.... now, you begin the journey of true exploration.
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skyrider
Once you are awakened.... you are no longer selling the illusions.
When this happens.... you are removed and ostracized.
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Rocky
Unless you had removed yourself already. For me, the removal was in 1986, 37 years ago.
I started THAT journey in the early 1990s. My employer incentivized taking the bus to work. I started reading and exploring during said commutes by bus. I'm quite thankful.
Similar to the firehose of falsehoods.
Because how can someone encountering such a firehose cope well enough to figure out what's truth or consistent?
Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded language to produce an emotional rather than a rational response to the information that is being presented.[1] Propaganda can be found in a wide variety of different contexts.[2]
IOW, we were inundated with propaganda and had no chance, in the moment, to sort it out or critically analyze any of it.
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chockfull
All these leaders fear only one thing. The loss of their perceived power which they revel in telling themselves about their great calling from God and their unique ability and position to “save the ministry”.
Their god is their position and that is what they worship lauding their position over others.
Yeah with a just God they will be cleaning windshields at intersections at the return of Jesus Christ.
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