waysider

HERE VP, Harry and, I think Ermal. (Not sure on the third one) Dorothy got kicked to the curb...tossed off the property. Nice, eh?

"Was there ever the thought to pass it back to the beleivers, the needy, etc.? Did you or were you told that it was like hiding Solomon's treasure - I could see that." Were you paying attention during PFAL when the lesson of Ananias and Sapphira was taught? It's no coincidence that it was part of our indoctrination. "Guess, you folks were just hiding the slush fund and gas money for the sexmobiles." That's pretty low. Should we level the same accusations against you for funding Way Corps students? (sponsorship)

Chronologically, this ties in pretty much with the mimeo plate destruction incident I posted about. I wouldn't be surprised to find the two incidents are connected. I'm not sure just how, but it would be a strange coincidence if not.

So, who were these key people? What were the circumstances and consequences of their deaths?

It sounds like a variation of this: .........../..... cognitive dissonance .......././. "Marian Keech (real name: Dorothy Martin) 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?" SOURCE

It used to bother me that I couldn't figure out the meaning of song. Not anymore. Nope.

What does any of this even mean? (In plain English, please.)

"Ladies and gentlemen, if you'll look out your window, you'll see we're flying over The Land of Political Discussion. We'll be landing soon."

Who are ?

I remember someone telling me that, now that I had this insider information, the devil was going to put me on his hit list, or something to that effect. I found myself wondering how it had all gone from "You, too, can have the more than abundant life!" to 'The debuhl's gonna snuff you out, boy." in such a short time. Do you see why it was depressing?

Just so ya know...... Wierwille allowed us to believe he was getting this information via divine revelation. In reality, as a follower of The Liberty Lobby, he was getting all that stuff from a newsletter called The Spotlight. We thought he was "tapped in". Hahahahahahahaha!

Quite possible. Back then, though, it was renamed The Buckeye Cambium, in keeping with the theme of all things being tree related.

"get ready for it" We had a statewide newsletter called The Grapevine. It was printed out on one of those big, clunky old machines that used metal plates to affix the recipients name and address. (It was in the hallway of an upstairs room in the BRC of the state limb HQ.) One night, after our evening meal, in late 1975?, we were given an emergency project. We had to physically destroy the old metal plates immediately! so "they" would not have access to our membership rolls. (But remember, there were "no membership lists in The Way"...uh huh) All very hush hush. Never tell a living soul......This post, should you decide to read it, will self destruct in 5 seconds.

It might be a good time to recommend THIS book again.

Now, boys, we all have to try to get along on this playground.

The VP version is also known as The Great Deviance.

It turns out, it might not be so good to be sure you "know that you know that you know". "Thoughts don't just flit around in our heads unobserved: humans know when something's going on in our own brains, and we evaluate our own thoughts. For example, we can judge when we're not certain about something, and act accordingly. This ability, called metacognition (thinking about thinking), has been found in a number of species, but humans are unusual in our ability to communicate what we know about our own thoughts and knowledge. How early in life do we develop metacognition? Children under the age of four, who confidently proclaim knowledge of things they can’t possibly know, seem to be pretty bad at it. Babies, on the other hand, point at things to ask questions about them. They shouldn't be able to do this unless they've worked out that they don't know something." Read more here: SOURCE

Don't forget Eli Stanley Jones, from whom Wierdwille took the concept of the ashram. Way Corps "Fear is sand in the machinery of life.".....E. Stanley Jones

I'm off on another tangent.....I tend to think Wierwille may have taken the Great Principle illustration from some source he didn't fully understand. (not that it actually made sense, anyhow.) I say this because, if you look closely at the illustration, there are three individual lines encasing it. This leads me to suspect the originator may have been a trinitarian and incorporated this into the design much like The Way logo features an open Bible. OK, back to topic.

Looking back, it's embarrassing to realize a lot of the conspiracy theories being passed around The Way in the mid 1970's were actually propaganda that originated with Liberty Lobby. It's been documented here that Wierwille had direct ties to them. So, all that nonsense about getting this information or that by revelation was an outright perverted lie on Wierwille's part. The guy was more than simply a con artist, he was dangerous and undoubtedly on some government watchlist. I've sometimes wondered if there is a file, somewhere in the FBI archives with our names in it because of our association to The Way. That's not a conspiracy theory, it's just how data collection functions. VPW had a reckless disregard for our safety.

"This apple tastes abundant.".....ya gotta love it.

What were your expectations? (....and whatever other thoughts you may have on it.)

You were probably believing this would happen..... you sly rascal, you. edit: Removed the negative connotation involved with "probably".

Care to start another thread to explain?