jkboehme

TOTW

I was hoping that you could tell me where the follow-up is! I don’t need two hands to find my butt in the dark because it is already, gulp, glowing!

And all this time, while at the ROA of times past, I thought the vague fluorescent glow under the harvest moon was just the well-watered corn!

We know VPW horded a bit of yellow gold, perhaps enriched himself with a bit of black gold, but this U Rainy Yum stuff is scarry!!

OM, do not confuse bogus 'VMP' with very real BTV {Blaming The Victim}. Perhaps you have been drinking the elixir of aloofness of the insensitive pro-cult apologists?

Two well-known social phenomena – blaming the victim & the just world concept – have been studied by social psychologists who have traced their origins to primitive times.

Blaming victims is an almost universal response to misfortune happening to others. In our society there is a strong taboo on being victimized through scams, influence, and deceptions. Attempts to break this irrational taboo tends to make the cult victim even more scorned.

When someone goes into a cult, the tendency for society is to say that there must be something wrong with that person. There must be some personal defect, otherwise he or she would not have joined such a group. Since the general public continues to regard cult members as stupid, crazy, and weak-minded, the near-universal response is: “It’s his or her fault. He or she went out looking for what they got.”

The tendency to blame victims prevents both lay and professional persons from seeing that most individuals who become involved in cultic relationships are a type of victim insufficiently recognized and understood. The person is irrationally blamed for being a seeker, gullible, or mentally aberrant. However, the thought reform programs of the cult are overlooked in this dimwitted 'VMP' appraisal.

There are 5 classes of generally recognized victims: victims of violent crimes; victims of natural disasters and serious illnesses; victims of terrorists and kidnappers; victims of civil torts; &, a final class overlapping the fourth, victims of enforced dependency.

Victims of enforced dependency have been subjected to non-consented thought reform processes. In essence, a thought reform program is a behavioral reconstruction program, a coordinated program of systematic manipulation using both psychological and social techniques.

Basic to the just world concept is the widely held belief that if a person obeys the rules of society, nothing bad will happen to him or her. Rule-breakers, on the other hand, get punished. Punishment comes in the form of bad luck, disasters, illness, loss. Thus victims of any disaster, crime, illness, or misfortune automatically fall into this bogus category of supposedly blameworthy people. This primitive reasoning goes something like this: “ Since I feel protected from evil and misfortune if I obey the rules – because it is a just world – then I can separate myself from those who come to harm. They must have done something bad to have bad things happen to them.”

To which brand of superstitious tribal illogic are you ensconced, OM?

Per OM to rascal:

“…You consistently blame others for decisions that *you* freely made…”

No one, OM, not even you, freely made decisions after having been exposed to TWI’s strategically coordinated programs of non-consented covert packaged persuasion. You may have the perception of freely made decisions, but in fact this is a strategic, TWI-induced misperception, predominantly of the implicit rather than the explicit type.

Once a person has been subjected to having their general reality orientation destabilized, & subsequently experienced TWI’s thought reform, a distinction regarding any person has to be between: I & “I;” you & “you;” he or she & “he or she;” me & “me,” etc.

For those poor souls with a ‘good take’ Post thought reform, TWI has unethically altered the person’s mind such that they are no longer their true historical self, but rather a TWI-induced pseudo-self & pseudo-identity. No person operating from the vantage point of a cult-induced pseudo-self is freely making decisions. Essentially everything is perceived through the false cultic filter.

Once exiting TWI, as many of us here can attest, it takes years to be rid of the major vestiges of TWI’s thought reform. We ex-twi will probably never be able to rid ourselves totally of the detrimental effects of TWI’s rape of the mind.

In my opinion & in all likelihood we {ex-twi} were neither naïve or foolish, but just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time with a transient vulnerability.

When we hear of cults, scams, and individuals' being controlled and influenced by others, we instinctively try to separate ourselves from these persons. It seems a point of valor and self-esteem to insist that "no one could get me to do such things" when hearing about situations of intense influence. Just as most soldiers believe bullets will hit only others, most people tend to believe that their own minds and thought processes are invulnerable, contributing to the 'Not me" myth.

People like to think that their opinions, values, and ideas are inviolate and totally self-regulated. They may grudgingly admit that they're influenced by advertising. Beyond that, however, people want to preserve the comfortable myth that only other people are weak-minded and easily influenced while they are strong-minded. Even though we all now know that human minds are open to influence – whether or not that is a comfortable consideration – most of us defensively feel that we could never be scammed, even by master exploitative manipulators such as vpw & lcm.

There is an almost universal aversion to accepting the idea that we ourselves are vulnerable to covert coercive packaged persuasion.

So my opinion is that we were all scammed by the cultic manipulative influence techniques of TWI's unethical compliance professionals, vpw & lcm. Hopefully we will no longer blame ourselves and feel foolish or naive.

My optical scanner has a gremlin so I am going to just relate the pertinent info of the FIOPA {Freedom of Information & Privacy Act} that is available.

The original FBI document is dated August 23, 1977. I don’t know what the following classifications indicate but will just list it here.

FOIPA No. 0997927-000

CVO375 2351622Z

RR HQ BA CI HI

R 231620Z

FM Cleveland (117-80)

To Director Routine

Baltimore Routine

Cincinnati Routine

Honolulu Routine

BT

Clear

The enclosed documents were reviewed under the Freedom of Information/Privacy Acts (FOIPA), Title 5, United States Code, Section 552/552a. Deletions have been made to protect information which is exempt from disclosure, with the appropriate exemptions noted on the page next to the excision. In addition, a deleted page information sheet was inserted in the file to indicate where pages were withheld entirely. The exemptions used to withhold information are marked below and explained on the enclosed Form OPCA-16a.

131 pages were reviewed and 112 pages are being released. Documents were located which originated with, or contained information concerning other Government agencies [OGA]. This information has been referred to OGA for review and direct response.

DMH, Section Chief

Record/Information Dissemination Section

Records Management Division

Alleged plot by organization “Way International” Founder Victor Paul Wierwille to explode nuclear bomb, AEA, 00 : Cleveland.

Re Baltimore teletype to Director, August 18,1977.

Cleveland Division has in the past conducted several investigations involving the “Way International”, New Knoxville, Ohio. Victor Wierwille is almost totally inaccessible for interview and is surrounded by corporate attorneys who in the past have been hostile towards the Bureau. It is believed that with no more details than Baltimore has provided regarding the building of a nuclear weapon by the “Way International” a productive interview with Wierwille is impossible at this time.

If allegation re nuclear weapon is true, Cleveland will obtain authorization from AUSA, Ohio, for Federal prosecution and would be interested in recovering atomic material from the “Way International” and xxxxxxxxx [jkb note: this is apparently how the FBI protects via FOIPA the identity of some of the parties involved]. An interview by Cleveland at this time would alert subject to Bureau’s interest and knowledge and would make subsequent investigation and prosecution more viscous.

Baltimore xxxxxxxxxxx Maryland, re-interview source and determine pertinent details re his knowledge of xxxxxxx to include identity and location. Additionally, determine where bomb is being constructed and any other pertinent details. As info may later be testimony, provide Cleveland with FD 302 re interview.

Baltimore should protect Baltimore source as informant in this matter.

Cleveland at New Knoxville3, Ohio, upon receipt of additional info re identity of xxxxxxx and location re nuclear device allegedly being constructed, will interview Victor Paul Wierwille re his knowledge. If a valid violation of Federal law is apparent, present matter to AUSA, Toledo, Ohio, for his prosecutive opinion.

On August18,1977, a source, whose reliability has not been established, advised that the has associated with the “Way International” for approximately xxxx years and associated with them while attending xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. He described the organization as a Christian cult founded by Victor Paul Wierwille, who believes himself to be a prophet. He recently attended the Rock of Ages Festival in Sidney, Ohio, where approximately 14,000 people attended at the fairgrounds. This festival was attended by the Word Over the World (WOW) members, who have gone out and recruited new members.

Source appears to be very intelligent and believes honestly that the organization has the potential for developing a bomb. He stated that many members are in the military services and would do any directive for the “Way International” and believes there are currently 50,000 members.

BT

Any US citizen can request the FOIA & get a copy. You might have to be persistent, even pushy, but you can obtain it.

Get it, & read it for yourself.

Per diazbro (from the 1976 timeframe thread...):

Reading through this thread I note that many of us talk about the alleged, attempted overthrow of the US government. This is a prime example of how Way teachings were verbally communicated perhaps so TWI could never be held accountable for it at some future time.

I point this out only because during Waydale and Gspot there have been people who have *vehemently* denied the whole conspiracy thing took place because it was never documented in writing. (They say things like "Show me where it was written and I'll believe it"). The odd thing is that most of the people making such denials were in fact active Way members at that time so I'm not sure what investment they are trying to protect by claiming it didn't happen. Of course one sees this form of denial a lot less these days on the forums but there are people who do continue to seek ways to justify and rationalize VPW's behavior even if it means attempting to change history or deny that certain things happened.

I also place into this category the teaching that aggressive witnessing would hasten the return of christ. That was never written down either (to the best of my knowledge) yet some people deny that such an idea was ever promoted even though the bulk of people I encounter from that time know damn well that it was. There are other examples of this type of thing but these two come to mind since I've seen both mentioned here in the thread.

Speaking more generally. Even more disturbing were attempts to marginalize those posting their accounts of firsthand abuse by saying "Well I was in TWI for a long time and I never saw of heard of anything like that happening. Are you sure that perhaps you aren't confusing things or maybe embellishing things ? Where were you ? I knew Reverened so and so and he would NEVER do anything like you describe. And I was at HQ so I'm certain if something like that was happening I would have known about it".

Oh great. We all know the whole "lock box" thing and how like 10 people could see something happen only to be told to put it in the lock box so thereafter everyone denied that something even happened. This is the damaging thing about some folks who are still invested in TWI even if they long ago left. They still are protecting TWI and its leaders by perpetuating myths and denials about things. Again. I don't see it that much anymore but it was standard behavior at Waydale and the early days of Gspot.

________

Though officially denied by TWI, many of us are familiar, if not blatant eyewitnesses, of TWI's stockpiling of weapons. With VPW's extremist rightwing views in concert with the Liberty Lobby et al, in retrospect this is not surprising. VPW told us that it was quite likely that TWI members would need to go 'underground.' We were advised to obtain weapons not only for our personal protection, but probably more important in VPW's mind, the protection of 'God's one true Ministry, TWI.'

VPW presented this spiritual-political conspiracy information as though he received by 'revelation,' but as Sunesis has pointed out, he got this extremist info via the Liberty Lobby & its publication, the SpotLight. An aspect of this many gsers may not be familiar with is that at one time it was alleged that VPW / TWI had an interest in acquiring nuclear weapons. Some of the above listed federal agencies appear to have information in their files regarding this chapter in TWI history, as well as the Dept. of the Navy.

Now what in the world would an extremist, paranoid, alcoholic, rightwing cult leader want with nuclear capability?

Would he need to invoke a nuclear winter to protect TWI, that is, his source of income & the means of fulfillment of his selfish interests?

Any thoughts?

Diazbro et al,

So as not to derail, I will start a new thread on TWI & US government surveillance of same.

You've got mail! See your PMs.

Per Catcup:

At some point they stopped calling them Christmas Breaks and began calling them "Ho-Ho Relo."

The Corps Director (LCM) and VPW were concerned regarding the number of new Way Corps who dropped out of the program after only 4 months, when returning home for Christmas break. The association with family who are not under the control of TWI, the reintroduction of outside media and adequate amounts of sleep and nutrition seemed to put a "pinch" in the Corps numbers at that time. So, a little "revision" of the "purpose" of this "time period" was in order.

They stopped "Christmas" for the obvious pagan reference, and stopped using "Break," because the word infers a respite from the previous activity. "Relo" or "relocation," simply inferred that even though they were changing locations, they were to continue their former activities of reality/brain disengagement.

Very true, Catcup.

No thought reform program has a 100% success rate, even the ultimate TWI coordinated program of covert packaged persuasion, the Way Corps.

So when junior WC were allowed to go home for Christmas, they got out from under the thumb of the rigid thought reform program. Sometimes this distancing from the TWI WC Root Locale, along with ample time with loved family and friends, was enough to get the jr WC to begin to resume their true historical identity, and displace the somewhat context-dependent TWI-induced, synthetic pseudo-self & pseudo-identity.

I remember hearing martinfail yelling at lunchtime announcements at WCOE about how he, lcm, busted his chops to get the jr WC “really ‘growing’ in dedication and commitment to the [TWI-defined] ‘Word’” during the 1st four months, only to have them go home for Christmas & return in a frame of mind as though they hadn’t already been ‘trained’ [victimized by thought reform] @ WCOE for the 4 months preceding Christmas.

So, as catcupper said, the cult meisters, vpw & lcm, perceived the need to somewhat redesign this aspect of this most strategically coordinated of all of TWI's programs of covert packaged persuasion.

Jimmy Doop gives us some information from this time period in his most recent publication, When the Hippies Found Jesus: Ears to Hear: A True Story of the Sixties.

This marketing, advertising, & sales b.s. has been going on for a very long time.

John Watson, a pioneer in the behavior modification field, left academia to accept a position at an advertising firm, J. Walter Thompson, circa ~ 1920. The techniques of manipulating humankind’s shortcut capacity for ‘automatic responding’ were now becoming the basis for marketing. The techniques have only been refined since that time & are very much in corporate application, albeit much of it being distinctly unethical.

These unethical marketing, advertising, & sales techniques are described extremely well in University of Arizona psychologist Dr. Richard Cialdini’s book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.

LCM, as a Bally personal trainer, is probably heavily involved in selling the above-mentioned types of contracts. I would imagine that the king of ‘Mo Tech’ does rather well with this unethical selling, no doubt with a focus on women. Presuming he has a base salary & then gets a commission for each personal trainer contract sale, he probably comes away with a decent income, & gets a chance to plug the whole in the ladies’ deficient hedge & relatively untapped resources.

;)

Go Groucho!

I couldn't have stated it better myself.

Per rascal:

“…My daughters, at least one of them anyway , is the age where friends of mine were started to be pressured to have sex with wierwille and martindale....

It was ok according to wierwilles religious beliefs too...it was also ok to destroy these vulnerable youngsters when they wouldn`t be pressured.....there were a lot of sick things that were ok to be practiced in wierwilles religion....that doesn`t make it right spiritually, ethically, morally or legally.

It brings it home all over again how perverted these sick old bastards were to force themselves on these innocents…”

Yeah, that’s what deceitful Corn Wizards do.

It seems to me the most fundamental aspect of the deception was the entire thought reform umbrella of TWI.

Once a wayfer was conveniently waybrained, the pressure to go WOW, Corps, or have sex with the mogfarts, was manipulatively promoted and exploitatively construed by TWI leadership to be an indication of the depth of one’s commitment, dedication & leadership potential.

Great post with good insights,Skyrider.

While the artificial fuzziness of the inertia of the comfort zone was certainly a factor in why so many of us stayed in TWI as long as we did, I think the TWI-induced exit phobia was an even greater factor. There is a psychological interplay between our natural inertial & exit phobia.

Exit phobia exists on a spectrum or continuum. On one end, the factor for us might have been that we were apprehensive that we would loose a relationship with family members or friends whom we loved very much that remained in TWI.

Perhaps a midrange concern would be that we would be viewed as a quitter and therefore scum in the tainted eyes of TWI.

At the extreme end of the exit phobia, TWI-promoted concepts such as family members or ourselves becoming very ill & even dying, serious accidents, financial collapse, possession, & many other outlandish claims designed by TWI to induce fear-based exit phobia.

Like Groucho said in another thread today, TWI is a bait & switch scam. We were baited on the recruitment side with the supposed love & grace of God, only to have TWI, by deceitful design, switch the arrangement to member control via rigid legalism and fear.

Then throw in the continual thought reform via covert packaged persuasion, along with the lousy mixture of manipulated inertia, exit phobia, and many other aspects, & we end up with years or decades of TWI's oppressive mental captivity.

The chapter of the blue book should not have been entitled, Relase from Your Prisons, but rather, Building a Glazed ....brick Prison for Duped Douloses.

Sunesis, here is my opinion on HOW Wierwille became aware of & utilized thought reform techniques in TWI.

A budding cult leader really doesn't have to be bright to understand & apply these unethical practices. He doesn't have to understand neurology, neuro-anatomy, neurotransmitters, or neuro-endocrine modulators. It does help if the Hierophant of the Mysteries is a natural con man.

Most of the techniques have been around since time immemorial. Whether humankind's current contiguous history began in 12,000 BC or 4,000 BC, these people had a great deal of time to devote to the continual improvement of these techniques. Manipulation, exploitation, & "man's inhumanity to man" seem to come 'naturally' to Homo sapiens.

Categorically, the techniques in this time-honored group would include psycho-social peer pressure, modeling, & trance* induction. Trance can be induced by various means such as: voice rolling; by conversational patterned speech with stylized voice intonation and inflexion modulation; by indirection, implication, & anchoring; by invocation of universality; by guided imagery; by excessive concentration on a topic for several hours; by presenting material as though it were logical when in fact it is illogical, thus inducing a subtle confusion; by mind-numbing activity such as {TWI-styled} Glossolalia; by mind-numbing activity such as {TWI-styled} 'renewed mind;' by triggering of previously implanted anchors, whether auditory or visual; & many others.

*The type of trance induction being referred to is of the 'eyes wide open' trance variety. Its induction is actually measurable by an EEG, a device that measures electrical brain-wave activity. An easily understood analogy to this type of process is what we experience when we drive a long distance, but can't recall extended intervals of the drive; it's as though we were on subconscious 'auto-pilot.'

New Thought Transcendental Metaphysics had its origins in approximately 1830 with the teachings of Phineas Parkhurst Quimby. Of course this movement was based on the ancient & Renaissance perennial philosophy of the Hermetic arcane. The New Thought movement was to grow & become the inspiration for the New England metaphysics movement championed by such authors as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Trine, & others. Trine authored a book with interesting correlations to TWI's 'law of believing.' His book was entitled, In Touch With the Infinite. At the turn of the century, William James became interested in this 'healthy minded religion,' & wrote Varieties of Religious Experience. The 'therapeutic' side of New Thought metaphysics deals with the utility of trance induction 'for the good' of the recipient.

Religious spin-offs of this movement include: Theosophy, Christian Science, Scientology, & others. TWI appears to be an admixture of this material with that of biblical fundamentalism, Pentecostalism, & revivalism.

In 1903, Ivan Pavlov published his work on classical conditioning in Russian, & it was translated into English in 1927. Around 1910 John Watson began publishing his research on behavior modification. Ousted by his university for having an affair with a lab assistant, Watson got into the marketing business at J. W. Thompson. Much of what Dr. Richard Cialdini describes years later in his book, Influence: the Psychology of Persuasion, was originated in the advertising and marketing areas based on behavior modification techniques. B.F. Skinner began publishing his research regarding operant conditioning around 1930.

Unlike Pavlov's "classical conditioning," where an existing behavior (salivating for food) is shaped by associating it with a new stimulus (ringing of a bell or a metronome), operant conditioning is the rewarding of an act that approaches a new desired behavior.

Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, & others used this knowledge for detrimental purposes, not only on an individual, but also on a national scale.

Dr. Joost A. M. Meerloo published Rape of the Mind ~ 1956.

William Sargant published Battle for the Mind in 1957. This book, although designed to describe coercive persuasion, became a 'bible' for would be cult leaders.

Psychiatrist Dr. Robert J. Lifton's book on thought reform was published in 1961. Although Lifton was describing what he saw in operation, this book, as Sargant's, became a veritable 'bible' for use by budding cult leaders.

Douglas Hyde published Dedication and Leadership in 1966. This book focuses on psycho-social group techniques of coercive persuasion more so than trance induction.

By the mid to late 1960's, the psychology literature was revealing that thought reform was much more effective and lasting if no physical coercion was used. Instead, it was demonstrated that manipulations via the 'softer' & upbeat techniques of non-consented, covert packed persuasion were much more lasting than the thought reform induced by physically coercive means. Neither of these two approaches, of course, had a 100% success rate.

A major key in this subtle, covert approach is to identify those potential recruits with "needs," i.e., transient vulnerabilities, and then manipulatively exploit the person under the deceitful guise supplying spiritual assistance. Regardless, the variable proportion of 'takes' via coordinated programs of covert packaged persuasion, such as that of TWI, is sufficient to support the cult leader & his or her top lieutenants. It's all about money and the selfish interests on the cult leader.

Per templelady:

"…I think it would be safe to say that all leaders of Dangerous Cults whether political or religious, such as Koresh, Jones, Manson, Idi Amin, Bin Ladin, and a host of others, are sociopaths. The picture is always about them, their wants, their feelings, their ideas. They generally lack ability to truly see things from others points of view or, if perchance they do manage to do so, what they view is held up to the standard of "how does this affect me…"

"…Sociopaths do, however, prey on the weak, the confused, the hurting. These people are most prone to idolize anyone who can 'lead" them. Sociopath's lack the willingness to discourage such "hero worship" since it is the gas for their engines, so to speak…"

So which of the categories below do VPW & LCM not fit into?

Sociopath: One who is affected with a personality disorder marked by antisocial behavior..

Psychopath: a mentally ill or unstable individual; one having an antisocial personality.

Maniac: A person who has an excessive enthusiasm or desire for something. A person who acts in a wildly irresponsible way. Characterized by excessive enthusiasm or excitement.

Megalomaniac: A psychopathological condition characterized by delusional fantasies of wealth, power, or omnipotence. An obsession with grandiose or extravagant things or actions.

Narcissist: psychological condition characterized by self-preoccupation, lack of empathy, and unconscious deficits in self-esteem. Erotic pleasure derived from contemplation or admiration of one's own body or self, especially as a fixation on or a regression to an infantile stage of development.

Manipulator: To influence or manage shrewdly or deviously.

Exploitative: To make use of selfishly or unethically.

Machiavellian: Suggestive of or characterized by expediency, deceit, and cunning.

***************************************

Fold TWI, FOLD!

"...That this work of ours may lead to victories for the age to come. The victors may not remember us, and if so, what matter? For them shall be the joy, the victories, and the praise. Ours will be the glory of the fathers in the sons..."

Tycho Brahe, Danish astronomer

Per rascal:

JKB, you said a lot of very insightfull things in your last post, but THIS in particular I think, needs to be matted, framed and hung on the wall around here.

TWI is parasitic of the genuine love & pure-heartedness of the people it deceives into joining its ranks

.

It seems to me that the parasitic nature of TWI is what enabled it to perpetuate itself these many decades. TWI was the Predator, cloaked in conspiracy of adaptable secrecy. We, the potential new recruits, were the targeted prey who had “needs” (i.e., transient vulnerabilities to exploitative manipulation).

Once a Parasite attacks its targeted host organism, the organism often becomes permanently disabled, mentally &/or physically. Others just die. Some ‘fortunate’ ones have only minimal scars or a measurable & bristling immune response to the attacking Parasite. Due to the superstitions of some of those so afflicted, they rationalize the experience with the Parasite as somehow ‘beneficial.’

The only 'good' Parasite is one that no longer exists..........Fold TWI, FOLD!!!

Per Penguin:

How many of you here are still struggling with trusting God again? I was thinking about all of us who made commitments (WOW,Way Corpse, Staff, Way Disciple, and the other programs) to who we thought were God's representatives only to be told we didn't measure up and that we needed to leave/be dropped etc.

It is sad that a beautiful desire to serve God and help others was trashed by twi when we were told we were not good enough. VP might have said he would take people with heart over people with ability, but in the latter days this was no longer the case. In fact, it was normally the opposite.

Anyone else have these issues? What have you done about it?

Yes my wife & I most definitely have these issues since departing from TWI post LCM’s 04/2000 ‘announcement’ which sounded all too familiar to the 1986-87 POP non-announcement. “Once burned, twice shy; twice burned, may wish to die.”

We feel that TWI has destroyed our ability to have a meaningful relationship with God. In fact, we don’t even know if God exists. In fact, we are not sure we now even care, even though we would like to care. We remain open minded but continue in our TWI-induced distrust of the entire ‘spiritual’ category.

Per Prospero of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest:”

You do look, my son, in a mov’d sort,

As if you were dismay’d. Be cheerful, sir

Our revels now are ended. These our

Actors,

As I foretold you, were all spirits and

Are melted into air, into thin air;

And, like the baseless fabric of this

Vision,

The cloud-capp’d towers, the great globe

Itself,

Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,

And, like this insubstantial pageant

Faded,

Leave not a rack behind. We are such

Stuff

As dreams are made of, and our little

Life

Is rounded with sleep.

:(

My opinion.

TWI began the Zaire outreach for at least two reasons:

• TWI saw the success of other hyper-authoritarian sects there such as the JWs, & wanted to cash in
  
• Dr. Peter Beter, one of veepee's right wing extremist info sources, was co-founder of SODEMMIR, a mineral exploration company in Zaire. Also, Dr. Beter founded the Beter Capital Group, Ltd., which offered "innovative financial solutions" to its multinational clients. Is this a euphemism for money laundering?
  

Actually, yes.

The "integrity of the Word" is being held very high in TWI as demonstrated by two of their finest.

Counterfeit 'ministry' from top to bottom. Speaking of bottoms......then again, on second thought, I'll think I'll just let Ros-a-LIE and Da-On-na post here themselves for our bedification.

:huh: :blink:

Per rascal:

think back on other events that I participated in....how many times did we have coffee houses or events that we were to invite people to...... we then were to use these as *open doors* for witnessing....a way to get someone to sign up for the class....in looking back.....it doesn`t seem like it ever really was about simply *blessing* people ....

Roa seemed consumed with corpes recruitment....wow promo...college division...etc

So much of the music we loved to hear contained themes of wow commitment...witnessing...tithe........

per Samurai:

But back on topic, every meeting, coffee house, open meeting with visiting leadership were all used as recruitment tools for PFAL or to go WOW

Per Belle:

By the time I got involved there wasn't much youth and cuteness left. "Class explanations" were just one big sales pitch and there was no pretending they were anything else. If there was someone you were "working with" but who hadn't signed up for the class yet, you were to bring them to a class explanation where the local WC would "close the deal".

It was very high pressure, but I consider using God's name and his protection on your life as high pressure and spiritual blackmail.

Per WhiteDove:

I watched the rise of "think and grow rich sales" in the Way happen it was always sad to see for me. I remember telling a branch leader that it was degrading to what we had to offer and to God to sell it like a refrigerator or a car. That went over as you can imagine real big and earned me a spot on the B list for the rest of their time here. I to this day don't doubt that they really thought that they were helping people they were unfortunately sucked into the carnal sales machine of the day.

As was said, the TWI rank & file members were generally deceived into thinking that TWI’s various open functions, oozing with recruitment, were somehow something good & needful for the ‘new people.’

All of us are transiently vulnerable to cult recruitment. So many cults, using so many guises and ploys, are actively looking for members at any given moment that surely there may be a cult for you. Whatever your age, whatever your interests, whatever your life-style, succumbing to the lure of a cultic recruiter is as easy as getting a library card. There are as many ways to become involved with a cult as there are cults.

Each group develops its own recruitment methods – ranging from personal contacts to public explanations to musical events, in newspapers and magazines, and on television and radio. The original point of recruitment may vary, but one constant factor is that rampant deceptions are involved. These deceptions extend from concealment of exactly what the group is at “the point of pick up” to concealment of the ultimate purpose of membership. These deceptions lie at the heart of a lack of informed consent.

Cult recruitment occurs in 4 main stages: the first approach by a cult recruiter; the invitation to a wonderful place or special event or an important, alluring meeting; the first contact with the cult, where you are made to feel loved and wanted; and then the follow-up, using psychologically persuasive techniques to ensure your quick return or greater commitment.

By and large, cult members did not seek out the group they joined but were personally approached in some way during a period of temporary vulnerability. Cult members are trained in persuasive methods of approaching potential recruits. Because we are all social creatures, most of us are prone to listen to nice-looking people who approach us in a friendly or helping manner and speak enthusiastically about what they believe in. Cults aim their recruitment at vulnerable people because these individuals are less likely to see through the multiple layers of deceit. The recruiter must manipulate the first conversation, getting enough information about the person to shape the discussion and make the group seem like something the person would want to know or experience.

The above is of course the essence of TWI’s sales’ classes: the Witnessing & Undersheperding seminar once offered ‘on the field,’ & Christian Motivational Techniques, taught to the Way Corps. As noted above, cults aim their recruitment at vulnerable people because these individuals are less likely to see through the multiple layers of deceit. In TWI’s recruiting methodology, individuals suffering a transient vulnerability were said to have “needs.” A major focus of TWI recruitment is determining these so-called “needs” in order to manipulate the potential recruit. TWI’s cult recruiters are taught how to “close the deal” so as to get the potential new recruit into TWI’s entry level class, whether pfal or wap.

Such great honesty & integrity from a Biblical research, teaching, & fellowship ‘ministry!’

Per Oakspear:

I believe that "snapping" is partly due to buying into the image of an exclusive group that "the world" is against. If you can be convinced that no one else has the truth, and everyone else out there hates you because of it, it's a short step to distancing yourself from family and friends, and changing all your habits and interactions.

It's a vicious circle: you make a statement that you believe to be the simple truth, but is incredibly insulting, your family is insulted and gets defensive, you see the defensiveness, perhaps your rudeness is met by some retalitatory rudeness and insults from your family. The cycle continues to escalate until you are purposfully distancing yourself from your loved ones. You think back and remember that you were warned that your family would reject you if they rejected "the Word". You smugly think you've got it all figured out and that Satan is running your family, blissfully unaware that your actions are driving them away; your family is convinced that you are brainwashed, totally clueless that they played a role in the self fullfilling prophecy.

This vicious cycle is most definitely by TWI’s strategic design, not happenstance. The process plays well into TWI’s ‘isolate & control’ strategy. During a period of transient vulnerability, our general reality orientation is purposefully destabilized by TWI’s coordinated programs of covert packaged persuasion. Our true historical self is overridden and overwritten by the new TWI cultic pseudo-self & pseudo-identity. “We” then proceed to do as you outlined so well, alienating of family & friends, causing further isolation. This sets the stage for further thought reform intense indoctrination from TWI.

This is most assuredly not a healthy spirituality, but a exploitative, manipulative sick religion. It is not only obviously unethical, it is probably illegal as well.

Per HAPe4me:

1976- America Awakes. We heard rumors of the secret rewrite of the constitution. I recall something about the Illuminati, and I remember seeing various John Birch writings which tried to prove our fears. My thoughts were that fear was the devil's thing, and we should not have it. It seemed like we were the last stand of defense. It became very spiritual and secret. We all read "None Dare Call it Conspiracy" We prayed, we did several 24 hour of prayer things, simply said, we were told we saved the country. We were the TRUE patriots. The music caravan, motorcoach etc toured the country. We celebrated "God's" victory. I thought it was silly and superficial.

More documentation of TWI promoting right wing extremist views with the intent of motivating TWI members with FEAR.

:mellow:

Samurai

Was that person Monty Pe**to, marred to K**r St***rt?