T-Bone

Hi, Touch of Spice and welcome to Grease Spot! I like to reformat posts for clarity - and so... == == == = Touch of Spice: I lost all my friends when the ministry fell apart, everyone seemed to stop talking to each other. .. I still have yet to reconnect on a meaningful level with some of those folks who were like family to me. == == == T-Bone: You mentioned some things of interest to me in your post and I was wondering if you could elaborate. What year are you referring to when the ministry fell apart? You mentioned losing all your friends then – does that mean everyone you knew went in a different direction, all believed one way and you believed another, they left TWI and you did not? == == == Touch of Spice: As of late, my online participation has renewed my interested in finding a copy of the foundational PFAL class. I've been hearing about a copy of the class on dvd. I'd like to get a copy of it for my personal use. == == == T-Bone: How much online participation are you talking about? This is your first post. Were you registered as someone else before? Like Waysider, I too am curious as to what Grease Spot posts or threads you have read over the last few years; besides being curious – I am also mystified that oddly enough you would seek a copy of the PFAL class from a website community that is predominantly opposed to PFAL, anything still associated with the support system of TWI, and not too keen on offshoots and splinter groups either… However - folks here can often be very helpful in pointing one in a direction that may be more suitable to your taste – as Bolshevik did in a previous post. Love and peace, Hope you find what you’re looking for T-Bone

very funny Junior CS - this one looks like vp wants to play a game of grab-a$$ with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Excerpt from The Cult Starter Kit Crash-course in personality make-over: become that charming narcissistic megalomaniac that you’ve always wanted to be! Always remember: things are to be used and people are to be loved for how you can use them.

funny...and so true great points Junior CS & Waysider...i guess to add specificity to this thread it could inform folks how to start an abusive cult properly...and that's the difference - between something that is bad for you and something that enhances your life....is it parasitic or is it beneficial? does it exploit your life / resources or does it add / improve the quality of your life / resources? that's another thing about trolling for candidates for your next class - you are told not to waste your time with people who don't want to or can't cough up money for the class...imagine if TWI would have said if you're not completely satisfied with the results from taking our class - we'll give you your money back....or a new student using the strategy of Wimpy on Popeye - I'll gladly pay you for the class after I become prosperous from all the benefits I'll receive from the class.

Cult starting tip Number Two: People generally like the feeling that they belong to something exclusive; that’s why it’s important to establish a secret handshake or some unique salutation – like “greet each other with a holy fart” for example. It will also help to identify unbelievers. It is also wise to set up protocols at the start of your cult. Using the above example of holy farts, you should declare that fart lighting (pyro-flatulence) should be reserved for introducing the cult leader or other big stinkers. And while we’re talking about this particular greeting you should also issue a directive that would tell followers to mark and avoid any person in attendance that actually lets one slip out (aka dropping a deuce, manifesting # 2, ectoplasm of the drawers). Illustrating the above example is a home fellowship coordinator introducing France’s Country Coordinator Rev. Toot of De Loom:

Cult starting tip # 148: stumped on ideas for what your cult should be about? Why not first join an existing cult! Splinter groups and offshoots are underrated enterprises.

Order the Cult starter kit – call now, (smooth) operators are standing by Call in the next 10 millennium and you’ll also receive: Crash-course in personality make-over: become that charming narcissistic megalomaniac that you’ve always wanted to be! Lessons in Lockbox Logistics: learn the complex operation of hiding bodies, crimes, misdemeanors, witnesses, and more! Buzzword Generator app: puts you in the driver seat of any conversation! Original Research Sampling Techniques: who thought of it first? Who cares!?!? Plagiarism smagiarism. Autographed copy of “How I Did It” by Elmer Gantry. Now how much do you think a minimum required donation would be for all of the above? Well, the next caller who really believes they can’t start a cult without all of this $hit stuff will also receive the book “How to Sin Against Friends and Compromise Scruples”.

Mark and a void

Hi Ex70sH, I really appreciate the honesty in your post. And I can relate to what you said about coming to Grease Spot to read of the struggles of others. When it comes to my beliefs I have to admit there’s so much in a state of flux – but as weird as it sounds that’s something I’ve grown accustomed to. I’m a technician by trade – old school variety – and work with wires and components, programs and checklists – so I’m more of a basic nuts and bolts / hardware technician. If you ask me – I think it takes a lot of faith to work in IT and I’m just not cut out for that. I know just enough IT stuff to get by in the work that I do and on occasion have joked with some coworkers that the operating system of my laptop is Magic – just because there’s so much going on in the background and it becomes too much for me to track and understand. I don’t get into studying theology as much as I used to – for the same reason. There’s so much to track and try to understand. It’s so true what Twinky said about we all have a set of biases. I enjoy checking out Grease Spot for the variety of perspectives. I’m a Christian but there’s an awful lot of questions in my head concerning the faith. But after leaving TWI I no longer get hung up in seeking answers to everything. I strive to be a good technician and sometimes feel I have to triple-check and even quadruple-check some aspect of a project I’m working on – might even call on another tech to check my work. But still things fail…wear out…break…$hit happens…can you tell I tend to think there’s nothing perfect in this life…so we just do the best we can…this might disappoint some folks – but I no longer have this goal of understanding the Bible to the nth degree; I’m really on a pragmatic kick now and often that’s what draws me to Grease Spot. I love to hear what others are doing, thinking, and feeling since they left TWI. Life’s journey is now my overarching project and I enjoy swapping notes with others.

Collateral D, thanks for posting the video…you know, I’ve seen some exciting things in my lifetime…like the birth of our 2 kids – Tonto had them both naturally – praise be to strong women! A few years ago we went to a stargazing party at the McDonald Observatory in Fort Davis, Texas – got to look through a powerful telescope and gaze upon a distant nebula – the birthplace of stars!....watching the video – and what looks like the birth of another TWI offshoot….boring. And Twinky, thanks for your post of highlights and comments – I could only take so much of the video.

great points Chockfull !!!

good to hear all that, BlueCord ! i agree life is infinitely better without TWI - - and a helluva lot simpler too....when we bought our first house - it took awhile for our brains to uncomplicate the process of applying for a home mortgage because of how treacherous and burdensome TWI made it out to be. by the way, i hit 2 drinks in about 3 hours tonight - had 2 large cups of coffee and St Brendan's Irish Cream.....mmmmmmm good! all the best to ya, carry on !

Welcome to Grease Spot, Junior CS Great line But a tad hypocritical for a “church” ! I was in Family Corps 11 but left TWI during our Interim year (or whatever the hell it was called after 2 years of in-residence training); but I’m still flabbergasted whenever I hear of the sordid details from others who have left. Geez Louise, TWI had one hell of a Pharisee Training Program…I’m so glad you’re out – hang in there – we’re all survivors here. The corps principle acquire an in-depth spiritual perception and awareness when “decrypted” pragmatically actually means to achieve the same calloused self-righteous perspective as vp, oblivious to its effect on yourself and others. Maybe there’s something to the phrase “love is blind”. I was so enamored with vp that I never saw through his man-of-gawd façade. I’ve mentioned several times on Grease Spot, the pajama party vp had for the Family Corps one night, showing his favorite porn video – and the most frightening thing that still comes to my mind anytime I recall that night is to realize how powerful their indoctrination process was – for at the time, no alarms of impropriety sounded in my head nor did I hear of anyone else voicing concerns afterwards. I’d like to elaborate on your statement “The Rock was not about God or The Bible for us” – that goes for the whole enchilada! Anything that came from vp was not really about God or the Bible – it was more about how great vp was…First order of business for anyone in TWI who is sick and tired of the repression, confusion, hatemongering, hypocrisy, etc. – they need to address the elephant in the tomb – the sick and depraved legacy of vp.

thanks for keeping Grease Spot alive and well...Tonto and I donated to the cause.

edited - sorry off topic

Yeah, Raf - our family would definitely do that again....I enjoy reading your posts – always exemplary of critical thinking skills in action and imho you have a long suit in honesty – needless to say I’m a big fan – I have that book Thank You for Arguing that Rocky mentioned – great stuff to review occasionally.... Sorry about my attempt at levity on this thread – just couldn’t resist a good set up.

not to sway you one way on another but you can get a laptop that has a CD/DVD read/write drive - of course, you can get an external CD/DVD read/write drive that you can plug into a desktop or laptop

you know...the only bad thing I remember about our Disney cruise was leaving my floating footwear at Castaway Cay Island.

ever had a tough day? sometimes a goofy video can help.

Like WordWolf said it depends on what you want to do with it. Personally I lean towards laptops with Windows 10 operating system. I have a Toshiba Laptop and Tonto has a Sony Laptop. We also have a 2TB Western Digital Network Storage (not only good for storing pictures, video, music, documents, etc. but also we can move files between our two laptops). And just as a matter of efficiency – I’ve learned from some IT folks I really don’t have to do a backup of my operating system anymore (it would take a number of discs just for that!) – what I now do is make a copy of any photos, docs, files, etc. and have just that on my network storage and/or burned on a disc. So in a worst case scenario – I just need to re-install my operating system and then once that’s up and running put the copies of the stored files back on it. I bought our laptops and network storage at Best Buy. I like the portability of a laptop – I do a lot of programming and technical documentation for work (photos, videos, Word docs, PDFs, spreadsheets, software programs for security systems + A/V equipment); for fun, I love messing around with photography and music – again, the portability is nice – I can move laptop from our office to living room or dining area and multitask (watch TV – rip some music CDs – check on email – look at Grease Spot – hang out with the family). I usually go for a brand I’m familiar with; I’ll comparison shop on the Internet and pick the brains of any IT guys I work with too. I’m not an IT guy – I know enough to get by with all that I do…Some of those IT folks have some pretty beefy looking laptops – I mean the keyboard is even the size of one you’d plug into a desktop. As far as sound goes – there’s a lot of options – speaker systems that plug into the PC’s headphones jack – or if your Laptop has Bluetooth – get a wireless speaker system. One of the CEOs I do contract work for gave me a JBL Pulse Bluetooth Speaker for Christmas – you gotta hear Crossroads and Spoonful on that baby and it has a programmable light show to boot! Oh, the colors and trails are far out, man! Whether you go desktop or laptop – Mac or PC (I’m not familiar with Macs – but I do have an iPhone and iPad) – figure out everything you want to do with it before you go shopping at Best Buy or wherever. Once you have that locked in – I’d recommend going with a reputable brand from a store near you. Laptops have come a long way in being just as performance-powerful as desktops - : gude to 2017 17" laptops best gaming laptops

Tremendous insight here, Skyrider ! What a false sense of security I had while in TWI. Trusting that wierwille/TWI had our best interests in mind by keeping us safe and secure from "worldly influences and the Adversary" – is like letting the fox guard the hen house.

I think there are situations where anecdotal evidence may be just as validating as facts or careful study - when it resonates with another person or persons. Take Grease Spot for example. When I first came here - I had already left TWI over differences of doctrine and practice – as well as the various ways my family and I were exploited. Reading about other folks’ experiences – many accounts being similar to my own – resonated with me on several levels…intellectually, emotionally, socially, etc. The validation for me is hey I’m not the only one who felt weird about this or that…I’m not the only one who thought something was seriously wrong. Maybe logic and evidence are not as big a deal in About the Way forum as they are in the doctrinal forum – but maybe that’s because some folks are usually looking for something to relate to or that resonates with them in About the Way forum…maybe not looking to debate or convince somebody of something but instead they are looking for validation (or support) for what they already feel is true.

as physically demanding as the way corps program is - it makes sense the director is a pharmacist - so he can prescribe performance enhancing drugs. just bring your Rx right up to the counter next to the Kool-Aid display

That’s a good point about the indoctrination process; that doesn’t occur with the casual reader….which is another thing that makes me wonder about the credibility of some who come to Grease Spot, making like they’re an outsider – not affiliated with TWI in any way, shape or form – and yet as crazy as this sounds, they rave about the merit of wierwille’s books. Like the person – earlier on this thread who claimed to have a degree in theology – yet deemed some of what they learned in that degreed program was crap compared to wierwille’s books. And on top of that implying they had mastered wierwille’s works - to the point they could reprove TWI leadership who deviated from wierwille’s great “truths”….. By the way – most of the folks that I remember using terms like “mastering PFAL” (wierwille’s books and class) were in the Way Corps. I used terms like that myself when I was in the Way Corps program. I’m not saying that is the only context where phrases like that were used – just saying that even at the highest level of supposedly academic achievement in TWI, “mastering PFAL” was the gold standard of “truth” - - uhm….wierwille’s version of truth that is. I tend to think with such a tenacious grip on wierwille’s stuff from a supposed outsider- that might be a red flag that they are not being upfront with us - but rather indeed they have been indoctrinated through some level of involvement with TWI. On a side note – Waysider, thanks for the link to the Waydale repost – glanced through some of it – and will definitely read it in its entirety later – great stuff on applying critical thinking as you wade through wierwille’s mishmash.