jardinero

Ron, Water Buffalo, Shar and P ~ Thank you all for your greetings too! Love you! J.

Yeah, Raf. I was also glad to see it got an Oscar nomination for best pic and I heard on the news this a.m. that it has a campaign building among the academy and has a shot at winning it. I saw it a second time, Laleo, just so I could see the opening 10 minutes - - and I haven't seen very many movies of late worth seeing twice, but this one is. J.

Well, I have to agree with George A. on his first choice from Casablanca. BEST line. But one of the best delivered lines I love is from When Harry Met Sally, right after Meg Ryan's orgasm scene and then the camera pans over to Olympia Dukakis' table with the waiter taking her order and she does the perfect deadpan delivery "I'll have what she's having." J.

Thank you ALL very much for the many warm wishes and thoughts for my birthday. I don't have much family (and only my son out here with me), so it's so nice to hear from so many of you I consider "family" (especially SOME of you I've know SUCH a long time - - thanks P!). My staff at work took me out to lunch for Mexican food (what else?) and smothered me with Ghirardelli chocolate from Calif. (just so I'd have to share with them!) and received many calls from around the country from friends and my lovely niece in Korea. Always nice to feel so loved. Thanks again everyone! Love, J.

Those are too funny! ...and YOU are too funny! J.

Awwww, how very sweet of you Eagle! Happy Anniversary to you and Mrs. Eagle. Enjoy your time together. What a sweet Valentine :) J.

Nicely done, Paw. Great idea. With the rate people are leaving twi, this is sure to be a great help to personalize what so many of us who have discovered GSC, already know. Nice sound on my end, too. J.

Yeah, what Groucho said. I feel the same way. It takes time and if I can help, empathize with, point in the right direction of just listen to someone else just getting out or that has been out for a long time but never de-WayBrained - - then I'm glad to help. J. PS. Ex10 - - my chicken murdering twig had chicken murdering duty THREE times. And hogs twice. I had such a hard time eating meat for a while. Ugh! Still makes me gag thinking about that smell.

We had left twi in 89 with 99.9% of our state in tact as a result of lcm's loyalty letter. So for a couple of years everyone still played Wayworld like before, but people were still reeling from POP, leaders with no twi-tit to feed them begged for money, a "get back to the word" campaign and pressure ensued, etc. The resulting fear, lack of leadership, bickering and MOG-wannabe-ness that transpired during the next few years made me even more disillusioned than even twi/POP/lcm. Then the clamoring for loyalty to a splinter group organization heated up and things got kinda ugly. I had old friends who had family still in who told us what was still going on - - wasn't too interested in lcm's escapades - - except out of morbid curiousity. But, deep down inside, there was a part of me that still was trying to put the pieces together. How did twi go from this cool, loving, Bible-based group in the early 70s when I got involved - - to such a male-dominated, throw your "juevos" around, in-fighting, legalistic mess - - where leaders with 20 and 30 years experience "leading" were so screwed up, lacking in vision and morally corrupt it was ridiculous???? Why did the stuff we thought was so exact and precise NOT work so exactly and precisely? How could God let this stuff happen if we (and what we believed) were the real deal????? So, after leaving the last splinter group that was the worst of the 3 I had visited, I decided to go back to college to finish a degree. Aaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnddddd...while looking up Rome City's address to send away for my transcript, I was met with a link to the investigation of RC by the IN Secretary of State!!! Then started seeing all the ex-twi sites and landed here. What I discovered (besides a lot of old friends) was that there existed a body of evidence - - facts, stories, impressions - - similar to mine that not only validated what I had suspected and had dismissed - - but also proved to me that the problems were long-standing and systemic. THAT I could no longer dismiss. Once the pieces were put together, a lot of personal healing emotionally and mentally took place - - and the more I de-WayBrain - - the longer I stay :) J.

Hmmmmmm, Excie... Not quite sure what you're getting at, but...it doesn't appear people on the forums put you down for asking questions. In fact, in my observation, your posts and opinions seem to be met with affection, support and cutting you some slack when you are unclear or are having a bad day. So unless you are referring to your private topic conversations, don't know what you are really trying to ask. I think common courtesy and a respect for people to be able to voice their opinions whether we agree or not, are the things that might make someone a "good" greasespotter. J.

Now THAT would be understandable. J.

Wow, Radar dear - - I've known you the longest of all the posters I personally know here at the Spot - - taking us back to our teens!!!! Whoda thunk??? Well, it's a privilege to know you, the wonderful and funny person you are. So happy birthday. Hope it's as fun and wonderful as you are! We still have to plan our rendevous in Calif. for some sour dough bread, Gallo salami and vino, my dear Love, J.

Oh yeah, Desiree. I knew it started with a D. Sorry to hear they divorced. It happens. Thanks for the update Happyasaclam (and thanks for the note!) :) J.

In the late 70s, Randy Feese was the So. Calif Limb Leader and was single and a real heart throb to the single Corps gals. He finally married a gal named Diedre (I think) and they moved somewhere in the SW (Texas)??? Never heard what ever became of them. Anyone know? Just curious. J.

Hey Buddy! Hope you are well and celebrating this b-day in style! Happy Birthday, Seth! J.

Happy birthday wishes from me, the boy and the dog (woof!) Love, J.

Socks said: Yeah, I wondered about that too, Socks. Any of you know what started this whole thing? Catcup? Belle? Anyone? J.

Shell J.

Arigatou for the Japan trip report, George san~ Have fun! Ja mata backatcha! J.

Yeah, it's material readily available, WW. Just wanted to include it in this thread. J.

A little of both, though my comments are a result in so many years "in" and not particularly from any influence of being in The Family Corps - - which, when I was in it, was much less freaky than Emporia. Helped: I work in Marketing and have communications and graphics teams I've managed over the years - - so attention to detail is important. Growing up with an alcoholic father and then seeing the effects of an alcoholic leader (or leaders) throughout the twi organization - - - (classic among alcholics being "perfectionism") - - - I developed a hypervigilance about freaky details that "normal" people in my field call a good eye for details. Hindered: That same response to having to have something done perfectly (ain't gonna happen when your company develops software! - - LOL), or the "it has to be done my way" mentality of both my perfectionist father AND so many freakin leaders in twi - - - - took some unlearning and reprogramming, so I could learn how to be a better manager in the corporate world. I had to learn that it's O.K. if someone has a different way to do, organize, lead something - - - as long as we were marching towards the same goal. Not an easy thing to learn - - and when the pressure is on, I sometimes revert in my mind to "dictator or top-down" management where I want to "be in control" and really have to catch myself to let my team function w/o sticking my nose into everything. J.

From Shaz: Shaz, I think this is why there are so many heavy drinkers and/or alcoholics among the ranks of those in, out and still in offshoots (my observation alone) - - self medicating.Rascal said: I still talk to ex-twi people who won't go to a doctor (in their 40s and 50s) for simple check ups that could save their lives; that very obviously suffer from depression or remnants of "Waybrain" that they still do not function very "normally" without references to Way world that people never associated with twi don't understand. J.

Cognitive dissonance (interesting, Ex - - I studied this in an organizational behavior class in school): This theory was first explored in detail by social psychologist Leon Festinger, who described it this way (from: Cognitive Dissonance): Interesting part about cults: Cognitive dissonance has been called "the mind controller's best friend" (Levine 2003: 202). Yet, a cursory examination of cognitive dissonance reveals that it is not the dissonance, but how people deal with it, that would be of interest to someone trying to control others when the evidence seems against them. For example, Marian Keech was the leader of a UFO cult in the 1950s. She claimed to get messages from extraterrestrials, known as The Guardians, through automatic writing. Like the Heaven's Gate folks forty years later, Keech and her followers, known as The Seekers or The Brotherhood of the Seven Rays, were waiting to be picked up by flying saucers. In Keech's prophecy, her group of eleven was to be saved just before the earth was to be destroyed by a massive flood on December 21, 1954. When it became evident that there would be no flood and the Guardians weren't stopping by to pick them up, Keech became elated. She said she'd just received a telepathic message from the Guardians saying that her group of believers had spread so much light with their unflagging faith that God had spared the world from the cataclysm (Levine 2003: 206). More important, the Seekers didn't abandon her. Most became more devoted after the failed prophecy. (Only two left the cult when the world didn't end.) "Most disciples not only stayed but, having made that decision, were now even more convinced than before that Keech had been right all along....Being wrong turned them into true believers (ibid.)." Some people will go to bizarre lengths to avoid inconsistency between their cherished beliefs and the facts. But why do people interpret the same evidence in contrary ways? The Seekers would not have waited for the flying saucer if they thought it might not come. So, when it didn't come, one would think that a competent thinker would have seen this as falsifying Keech's claim that it would come. However, the incompetent thinkers were rendered incompetent by their devotion to Keech. Their belief that a flying saucer would pick them up was based on faith, not evidence. Likewise, their belief that the failure of the prophesy shouldn't count against their belief was another act of faith. With this kind of irrational thinking, it may seem pointless to produce evidence to try to persuade people of the error of their ways. Their belief is not based on evidence, but on devotion to a person. That devotion can be so great that even the most despicable behavior by one's prophet can be rationalized. There are many examples of people so devoted to another that they will rationalize or ignore extreme mental and physical abuse by their cult leader (or spouse or boyfriend). If the basis for a person's belief is irrational faith grounded in devotion to a powerful personality, then the only option that person has when confronted with evidence that should undermine her faith would seem to be to continue to be irrational, unless her faith was not that strong to begin with. The interesting question, then, is not about cognitive dissonance but about faith. What was it about Keech that led some people to have faith in her and what was it about those people that made them vulnerable to Keech? And what was different about the two who left the cult? "Research shows that three characteristics are related to persuasiveness: perceived authority, honesty, and likeability" (ibid. 31). Furthermore, if a person is physically attractive, we tend to like that person and the more we like a person the more we tend to trust him or her (ibid. 57). Research also show that "people are perceived as more credible when they make eye contact and speak with confidence, no matter what they have to say" (ibid. 33). According to Robert Levine, "studies have uncovered surprisingly little commonality in the type of personality that joins cults: there's no single cult-prone personality type" (ibid. 144). This fact surprised Levine. When he began his investigation of cults he "shared the common stereotype that most joiners were psychological misfits or religious fanatics" (ibid. 81). What he found instead was that many cult members are attracted to what appears to be a loving community. "One of the ironies of cults is that the craziest groups are often composed of the most caring people (ibid. 83)." Levine says of cult leader Jim Jones that he was "a supersalesman who exerted most every rule of persuasion" (ibid. 213). He had authority, perceived honesty, and likeability. It is likely the same could be said of Marian Keech. It also seems likely that many cult followers have found a surrogate family and a surrogate mother or father or both in the cult leader. It should also be remembered that in most cases people have not arrived at their irrational beliefs overnight. They have come to them over a period of time with gradually escalated commitments (ibid. chapter 7). Nobody would join a cult if the pitch were: "Follow me. Drink this poisoned-but-flavored water and commit suicide." Yet, not everybody in the cult drank the poison and two of Keech's followers quit the cult when the prophecy failed. How were they different from the others? The explanation seems simple: their faith in their leader was weak. According to Festinger, the two who left Keech--Kurt Freund and Arthur Bergen--were lightly committed to begin with (Festinger 1956: 208). Veddy, veddy interesting.... J.

The Highway, I think you are thinking of Dr. Walter Crinnion. Walter moved down to Tempe, AZ and is Director of the Environmental Medicine Center of Excellence at Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine. You can Google him and find more info on him. J.

Chill, you crotchety old fart! I'm bringing the cerveza tonight to chat J.