Leaderboard

Can someone explain to me how VPW managed to get Doop and Heefner to fall under his thrall? If these were such thriving ministries in their own right, why did they affiliate with him? Why both of them (since as I understand it, they were separate ministries anyway). What, did VPW lure one or both into "taking the class" and then demanding fealty forever after - not just of them, but of all their own following? Why didn't these other men stay affiliated in some way without getting badly enmeshed with TWI?

"So, looking back.....what do I see?.......the 1970 growth spurt in twi was all manufactured." More specifically...... it is my contention that, along with the corps indoctrination camps...er, campuses, the mass-herding at big events: 1) PFAL '77, 2) Advanced Class '79, 3) Living Victoriously (1982), and 4) Sound Out '84 were catalysts for the mass formation psychosis in twi. Sure, there was some genuine outreach efforts and God-inspired actions/activity by many individuals, twigs, branches or even areas......but from centralized-hq, NOPE. Looking back, I don't think the herd-fests (i.e. big events) moved the needle in God's direction one bit.

Great thread, Skyrider !!!! I love the detail and chronology…each post is going into an offline file I have of TWI history…I keep changing the file name. First I called it the Annals of TWI History …then it was the Anals of TWI History …then the Anals of Misery …Gatekeepers of the Backdoor Boogaloo…naw - what’s a gate doing on the backdoor anyway…maybe change gatekeepers to brown-nosers...maybe just go with the star of the show…sphincter paul wierwille… hmmmm needs a title in front of it…the reverend rectum sphincter paul wierwille…too long…how about doctor dung-hole wierwille…maybe something warm and fuzzy …let’s try it out – I’ll take the part of the master of ceremonies at A Weekend in the Turd: “And now ladies and gentlemen here he is, our beloved father in the turd…” The excessive admiration many of us had for wierwille may have been due in part to our naivete and that timeless truth - love is blind. when we truly love…admire someone it makes us unable to see their faults. Naivete is a big deal…just theorizing here…seems to me the older…more seasoned…wiser Christians of his congregation/early following had enough sense to split as his delusional-plagiaristic-money-grubbing-malignant-narcissism ramped up – so he aims for the young and naïve – predators (human or animal) usually go for the easy targets. But beyond whatever reasons we may have had to hold wierwille in such high regard – there is another more alarming explanation for wierwille being held in such high esteem – wierwille required …more like demanded… excessive admiration from followers. He was so hung up on his stupid degree-mill title – if anyone ever slipped and called him “mister” or by his first name “victor” or “vic” in public – they’d usually hear about it from one of the hounds-of-hype gatekeepers if not the-grandmaster-of-hype-coming-out-the-wazoo himself. That is something common in harmful and controlling cult-leaders – they require excessive admiration. I’ve shared the following info before - excerpts from a Joe Navarro article - a former FBI Counterintelligence Agent and the author of “What Every Body is Saying” (a great read by the way). He wrote an August 2012 Psychology Today article titled “Dangerous Cult Leaders: Clues to what makes for a pathological cult leader”. He said the two questions he gets asked most frequently by students of criminology and psychology are: How do you know when a cult leader is bad, evil or toxic ? and when is a cult leader pathological or a danger to others? Navarro said those are valid questions in view of the historical record of suffering and hurt caused by various cult leaders around the world: “From my studies of cults and cult leaders during my time in the FBI, I learned early on that there are some things to look for that, at a minimum, say "caution, this individual is dangerous, and in all likelihood will cause harm to others. Having studied at length the life, teachings, and behaviors of Jim Jones (Jonestown Guyana), David Koresh (Branch Davidians), Stewart Traill (The Church of Bible Understanding), Charles Manson, Shoko Asahara (Aum Shinrikyo), Joseph Di Mambro (The Order of the Solar Temple a.k.a. Ordre du Temple Solaire), Marshall Heff Applewhit (Heaven’s Gate), Bhagwan Rajneesh (Rajneesh Movement), and Warren Jeffs (polygamist leader), I can say that what stands out about these individuals is that they were or are all pathologically narcissistic. They all have or had an over-abundant belief that they were special, that they and they alone had the answers to problems, and that they had to be revered. They demanded perfect loyalty from followers, they overvalued themselves and devalued those around them, they were intolerant of criticism, and above all they did not like being questioned or challenged. And yet, in spite of these less than charming traits, they had no trouble attracting those who were willing to overlook these features…” These personality traits stand out as the first warning to those who would associate with them, but there are many others. Here is a collection of traits of cult leaders that give us hints as to their psychopathology. This list is not all-inclusive nor is it the final word on the subject; it is merely my personal collection based on studies and interviews that I conducted in my previous career.” You can read the entire article here > Psychology Today: Dangerous Cult Leaders and make sure you look over the whole list of personality traits…the first time I looked over the list I had an unsettling realization that most of them are a spot-on reflection of wierwille. All you big-wierwille-fans (you know who you are) take note! All this ugly deplorable stuff about wierwille and the gatekeepers is not just some imaginary or exaggerated details from the mouths of bitter-quitters and cop outs. It all correlates with the unbiased, objective, professional opinion of qualified people like Navarro who study harmful and controlling cults.