Ham

I'm not arguing the validity of the concept.. it's just, I think it was used to replace one set of limitations with another. One set of assumptions for another.

Very slippery. Seems every (?) religion shares this core belief of sorts.. speak "THE WORDS" with the right kind of mind set or motivation, and the heavens and the foundation of the earth is supposed to shake.. Those who dabble in practical kabbalism make the same claim.

Yeah, but with Kesey, if you were "off the bus" that generally meant you ended up in a psychiatric ward somewhere.. well, the similarity is striking..

Yeah.. we could claim it is all for the public good. Just trying to save the sports world from bad manners, ankle wounds, AND rabies, all at the same time. sorry Socks.. heheh. carry on..

I'm somewhere in the middle. While I think I can be anything I want to be, I tend to try to be something that doesn't cause too much harm in life in the process.

Maybe they should issue a "booing license", affirming with reasonable certaintly, that said person won't go mad, run out on the gym floor, and bite the ref by the ankle.. Get a paper signed off by a psychologist, a therapist, and half a dozen personal references. That oughta make some money, for somebody..

Another murky thought on a Thursday morning.. "You can't go beyond what you are taught". The "teacher" boldly declared this little bit of supposedly self apparent wisdom, and then came: how you are supposed to think, how you are supposed to read, what you are supposed to say. I won't argue the validity of any specific concept here, but: 1. We were taught to approach the bible, as originally given, as being God-breathed, and as such "perfect". 2. We were taught to change OUR THINKING such that it agrees with the bible. No room for thought, no room for opinion. Doesn't that simply replace one intellectual straight jacket for another, one more frame of mind that a person can't "go beyond"?

Very interesting. And it makes more sense than what I learned in der vey. Just a thought.. Corinthians is supposed to be a reproof epistle.. I wonder why they had to be told that "prophecy" was to edify, exhort, comfort.. I wonder if they even then were mutating prophecy into some kind of intrusive "conditional" "personal prophecy" kind of concept.

At the risk of being booed by country western lovers.. Doesn't it sound like some old CW, "my wife left with my huntin dog, but not before the dog bit me, my truck broke down, life's just awwwwwfull" Maybe some of those guys have a future, if they can put some song to those lyrics..

That's just wonderful. But are the tents air conditioned too? I did see one tent at the ROA with an air conditioner once..

Yeah.. but one can dream, can't one? Just makes me wonder though.. so many words, so many "prophecies"- how many of them would be spoken, if the speaker's life depended on whether it was genuine or not. No "practice sessions" till I get it right.. No excuses. "Now, if you'd just put down those rocks, and read my book first.."

So few that can handle the "power".. and I can count them easily on one hand. They had "safeguards" in old testament times, but I think we'd get in *slightly* a little trouble implementing them here..

"Prophet" 1. A spokesman for Gawd A nice guy A hard man to live with.

Yeah. I think when answers to honest questions are anticipated with the response "if you disagree with me, read my book".. it's PRACTICALLY a lost cause. "I'm right, you're wrong, because discounting prophecy as false IN ITSELF is unbiblical.." More posturing.. "I'm da man, listen to me.." I didn't close the door. To say that the "critics" who disagree with him are discounting prophecy as false in itself is an unwarranted assumption. I don't discount prophecy in itself, but 99.9 % of the ones I've heard, I would say were made up in the imagination of the one giving them. Say the right catch-phrases, maybe quote a few verses of scripture, and everything is OK. Or is it? MY bible has a few things to say about "da man" that opens his mouth, and says "The Lord Sayeth", when the Lord has NOT spoken.

Makes me wonder how she could live with herself. Loyal wayfer to the end, probably didn't have a tinge of guilt. I know of an incident, a fairly well educated person, higher up in social services office, and higher up in the "ministry" in this area.. caused some REAL problems for an ex-wayer, who really needed some help. Since it's not my personal story, all I'll say is the person did some real unethical and harmful crap. I think "these kind" of people live for those kind of moments.. to mete what they consider God's vengeance on humanity, or something like that.. They seem to enjoy their "job" too well.

I have things stuck in my brain too. I have thought of capitalizing on it, and using the material as a stand up comic. Unfortunately, the only people who would understand it would be ex-cultist.

Hmmmm. If I had a son, I was going to name him Bill. Figured people would chase down to pay at least one of the members in the family here..

"That da ministry be not blamed" 1. An obscure, partial quote invoked to plow under a multitude of blatant indescretions, often illegal, of the mog. 2. Lying, maneurvering, doing whatever is necessary to keep people from fleeing for their lives from "da ministry that taught them da word".

Amazing how such a "spiritual" organization can bring out the most hateful, harmful carnality in people.

I dunno. It seems like a scene out of Hotel California. The beast is properly dispatched, but it's only playing dead.. Or like a perpeptual Groundhog Day, you get up every morning, and there it is again.. been beaten, stabbed, run over by a truck.. and every morning it comes back.. Careful there Socks, I think I saw it blink..

I think der vey THINKS they are the antithesis of the illuminati. They have ascribed to almost every half-baked conspiratorial theory that has a remote amount of plausibility. Supposedly, they saved us from the destruction of the constitution in the 1970's, then they supposedly saved us from another takeover, then they saved us from Y2K meltdown, by taking the right precautions.. I've heard claims how they saved us from famines and pestilence, "standing in the gap for da people". Mostly the "deliverance" is in terms of what DOESN'T happen. "Joe Schmoe, because he was faithful and abundantly shared, did NOT perish in a hurricane, unlike other greasespots.." I think the vey has to justify its existence, at least in the eyes of its followers. They hold up the illuminati, famines or pestilences as some kind of boogey man that only a VERY small, half baked, unimportant cult in podunk ohio can properly dispatch. The longer I have been out, the more ludicrous it appears..

Yeah.. I wouldn't be happy with TWI "writers" giving some kind of historic revision of my life either. Or slandered, like I lot of folks have had done to them. I wouldn't consider writing some articles for der veq mag hardly looking good on a resume.. no less an obituary. So.. what do I want on my tombstone? I'll take some ham, mushrooms, pepperoni.. Might be all I can get..

Here are the results of a similar kind of "training". The only difference I see, they are "secular", and momentus has a fine religious veneer. I wonder if CES really knows what they are messing with.. http://www.cultnews.com/archives/000781.html

Here is a little bit about the parent organization: from http://www.rickross.com/reference/lifespri...ifespring7.html No wonder they DEMAND you hold them harmless.

I think twi got our attention when we still believed in Santa Claus. Somehow portrayed God as some kind of Santa Claus machine, push the right buttons, and whatever you heart desires pops out the slot on the other side.