QamiQazi

Karl, that's just how rumors get started. A journalist ought to set the example for the rest. (Right Rafael?) I understand people also thought satori was you, Karl. Well I'd almost believe it. But my best theory is that the satori was never a real person, but an cosmic artifact, a quantum-level hologram, an internet-generated "ghost," a digital phantom, a cyber-spirit, the tangible personification of an animated amalgamation of billions of billions of ones and zeros, synthesized ("conjured" if the truth be told) from all those many posts expressing the hopes, fears and dreams of you and me and all the world! In fact, I wrote a song about it.

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale,

a tale of a fateful trip.

That started from this tropic port,

aboard this tiny ship.

Damn. Not the song I was thinking of. I have to look for it.

Karl, at a cafe all the mugs look the same. I prefer Bass.

KK, the same two points you made here were subjects of questions I asked the "clergy" overseeing my PFAL class. Looking back, he had to know I was right. Instead of an honest answer, he told me to hold my questions "in abeyance." Acquiescence seemed appropriate in the polite company of Way believers. What difference did it make? I wouldn't realize how much hinged on PFAL's errors until long afterward.

QQ

Steve! is partly right about "cognitive dissonance," and a little reading up will probably refresh his understanding. Although there are several more possible outcomes than the one he describes, he does the discussion a great service by introducing the concept.

Here is a snippet pulled from one of the many websites that offer information about this fascinating and relevant behavioral phenemonon:

quote:

---

Cognitive dissonance was first investigated by Leon Festinger and associates, arising out of a participant observation study of a cult, which believed that the earth was going to be destroyed by a flood, and what happened to its members — particularly the really committed ones who had given up their homes and jobs to work for the cult — when the flood did not happen.

While fringe members were more inclined to recognise that they had made fools of themselves and to "put it down to experience", committed members were more likely to re-interpret the evidence to show that they were right all along (the earth was not destroyed because of the faithfulness of the cult members).

---

What would really be interesting to know is how some people reach the "level of commitment" that requires a rational mind to serve a delusion, despite a world of solid and contradictory evidence. Maybe Mike can fill us in. Was it the 'shrooms you did in '71?

"You don't really live until you find something worth dying for." - Jesus

[This message was edited by QamiQazi on December 28, 2002 at 10:18.]

Mike, your remarks do not absolve you of the responsibility to answer honest questions honestly, if you can. Can you? Probably not.

If Dr. Wierwille's publications were "God-breathed," then God is the real plagiarist. The good news is Dr. Wierwille may be all those other things, but he beats the plagiarism rap.

excathedra, just don't tell me if it tastes like chicken.

Matilda, you are way too funny!

Mike, this would be a profound teaching, if The Way mythology were true. Live by the Word, love by the Word, "first master then serve." Had The Way been built upon the Rock, and had the myth been reality, this teaching would have been the lodestone for the next seven generations.

The myth of his calling, the myth of his ministry, the myth of his class, the myth of his destiny, were, and are, lies. They were concocted, manufactured, packaged and propagandized across The Way Ministry, which itself was, and still is, a little splinter group.

See Mike, whenever Dr. Wierwille taught about service to the believers, it was a kind of code. What he meant, and more importantly, what he expected and got, was service to him. How else do you account for the legions of servants, the court full of courtiers, the gifts and honors and protocols, the erections of monuments, the seasons of heraldry and pageantry of, by, and for a ministry of **supposedly** Christ-centered bible-philes. They were done for a reason, Mike. It was to manufacture a mythology. It worked! Whaddya know! People go for that crap. Look at the Americans fawning over British royalty to this day. We're born suckers Mike. Smell the coffee. You've wasted far too much time already. Don't waste another minute.

Know this Mike. You are living the mythtery. The truth will make you free. Or mad, if you believe Huxley. Let's hope not. Free good, mad bad.

"You don't really live until you find something worth dying for." - Jesus

duplicate

excathedra, I've heard that when you wake yourself up by snoring, you get to make a wish. I've never been to a porker pageant, but someday, someday I will if it's the last thing I do.

Chatty Kathy, you are thinking of a duxymoron. Very perceptive, too.

Zshot, don't lose any more sleep over it.

"You don't really live until you find something worth dying for." - Jesus

johniam, I will probably regret asking, but why do you say Lot snored?

Firebee, you may need to call Roto-Rooter.

As bodies of water go, it would have to be Halle Berry's, as she emerges from the waves in "Die Another Day." Buoyancy was never so misnamed. The girl is truly see-worthy.

"You don't really live until you find something worth dying for." - Jesus

I had a roommate who snored, Way back when. She was a rip-snorting type, and her particular nasal-glottal combo sounded something like a tuba, the mouthpiece partially attached to the exhaust pipe of lawn mower, a little 2-cycle Briggs and Stratton job with the "choke" open full and the throttle all the way down. You could almost see blue smoke and smell oil burning when she got cooking! And she was the deepest sleeper. Those were the days.

"You don't really live until you find something worth dying for." - Jesus

Happy birthday, Matilda, and happy holidays.

"You don't really live until you find something worth dying for." - Jesus

Do you snore? Do you live with a snorer? If so is the snore in question:

The knife-throwing Britt in The Magnificent Seven, and super spy Derek Flint, and a lot more. I will miss him.

"You don't really live until you find something worth dying for." - Jesus

Congratulations! Many happy returns. What does that mean? I don't know. But congratulations.

"You don't really live until you find something worth dying for." - Jesus

Dr. Wierwille practiced a kind of voyeurism, by observing the reactions of young people deliberately subjected to viewing hard-core porn while seated close together in a co-ed environment. Are there any psychologists out there who know the clinical or legal word for this kind of manipulation?

"You don't really live until you find something worth dying for." - Jesus

[This message was edited by QamiQazi on October 22, 2002 at 13:32.]

Very sad news. Sorry for your loss. I can hear a true friend's grief in your words.

Fatigue is a killer on the road. Damn -- pull over, people. Take five and you may not take a life.

"You don't really live until you find something worth dying for." - Jesus

From "A Child's Garden Of Verse," re-edited by Dr. Victor Paul Wierwille of The Way International:

"Old mother Hubbard went to the cupboard to fetch her poor dog a bone

But when she bent over old Rover took over and gave her a --- of his own."

I've read some Greasespot articles and threads, but this thing makes me wonder what else was going on.

"You don't really live until you find something worth dying for." - Jesus

Sunesis, thank you for setting the record straight with honesty and compassion. I've forgotten a lot of the people I briefly knew during my time with The Way International, but I can remember Rochelle's smiling face as if it were yesterday. She was the good friend of a casual friend of mine. I never heard about the accident, or heard so little I forgot it. There should have been lawsuits against The Way for negligence, and putting those kids at risk. I know they or their parents probably signed releases, but one lawyer tells me that releases aren't worth much in a civil court. How many other former Corps kids are still coping with injuries they suffered in that accident? The Way International is a corporation and they bear the liability for these things, and for the pain and suffering of Rochelle's devastated family. They dumped her out on her own (to "mature" of all things - what was the Corps supposed to be about?) and when she couldn't go on, she took her own life and they smeared her name to cover their own tracks. How ugly those people are. How cruel. How heartless.

"You don't really live until you find something worth dying for." - Jesus

Hope you have a very happy birthday, TheEvan.

QQ

"You don't really live until you find something worth dying for." - Jesus

Since you're already gone I can't give you any parting words. But if I'd had the chance I'd tell you this: don't look back. As it is, even if you do years from now, Rip Van Moderator will just be getting around to determining this post is not part of another plague of infernal attack polls. Wait a minute, it's as I feared. It's the polls that drove you away! God forgive me! They're leaving in droves! Woe is me, a sinner and a no good poll cat. excathedra, you're a good sport to have read this far. You will be greatly missed, by the ones who count.

"You don't really live until you find something worth dying for." - Jesus