waysider

Peer pressure and conformity were a huge part of the various "training" programs.

I was at a pizza joint with about a half dozen other believers. When the pizza arrived, the senior most person present told us not to eat the pizza. He said it was spoiled. We all took a quick whiff. It smelled fine. He explained that he didn't smell it with his own nose but smelled it with the nose of Christ which was inside his nose. We didn't eat it and guess what. None of us got sick. Imagine that.

Did you feel like you had super human powers when you were in The Way? I don't mean the usual kind of stuff that most Christians talk about like "more than a conqueror" and so forth. I mean things like how your eyes could supposedly see things that mere mortals could not see, your ears could hear things normal beings could not, your sense of smell being heightened beyond the normal human range, etc. (Christ's eyes behind your eyes) For many people, an ability to operate these "powers" was one of the main draws of the Advanced Class. Revelation was supposedly the key that unlocked the door to these special abilities. In two short weeks we were supposed to transform from Clark Kent to Superman. What a disappointment it was to find there were no phone booths to change clothes in at HQ.

Technology is probably the ONLY reason their twisted dogma persists. Without youtube, JL would probably be unloading trucks with LCM.

Or, maybe it was just time for a little change of pace. Change can be good, sometimes. I'm glad you enjoyed the occasion.

OK, that's attempt #2 at dragging down this thread. Only this time, you decided to give me a backhanded slap in the process. Don't do that again. If you want to participate in this thread, simply stick to the subject and leave personal slams out of the content.

I have a photograph of myself that was taken when I was six or seven years old. I had just broken my arm (for the first time) and was sporting a brand new cast. Should I keep it or let it go?

The only explanation I can offer for anyone returning would be that they are dealing with cognitive dissonance. How else can a reasonable person base life-altering decisions on a system as flawed as the "law of believing"? Once you understand and accept how invalid the law of believing is, the veracity of their whole theological system starts to crumble. It's like trying to believe in the tooth fairy all over again.

Thank you, Twinky. I hope you have a wonderful new year.

Good to see you again, Nero. I don't claim to have any answers but you can PM me anytime if you think it might help.

John Is this another veiled attempt to derail a thread? Give it a rest and have another eggnog.

It's out of my league, Ham. Visual patterns-yes. Audio patterns-yes. Numeric sequencing patterns-nope.

Happy Christmas to you, as well.

Say what?

What? "Who Cut The Cheese?" Are you trying to tell me my stowwwwwry stinks?

Repost (with slight modifications) I've got a little Stowwwry for you. It's kind of a parable, I guess, except it really happened. When I was just a little whipper, I wanted to be a cowboy. Maybe you did too. Lots of kids did back then. More than anything, I wanted a Palomino pony.(That's that beautiful golden color you see in the movies.) Trouble is, that's not too realistic for a kid in the inner city. One day, as I was out front playing with the neighbor kid, I happened to look down toward the end of the block just in the nick of time to see something that was a beautiful golden color, turning the corner, moving away from us. What do you suppose it was I saw? Yep. You guessed it. It was, of all things, a Palomino pony. Just to be sure, I asked the neighbor if she had seen it too. She was sure she had. We set out immediately, at a full gallop, in pursuit of that buckin' bronco. There was no time to consider where we would keep it or what we would feed it. We were on a mission. We were so excited, we didn't even notice the houses that became a blur as we flew past them. Huffing and puffing, we made it to the end of the street and turned the corner. And there it was, our Palomino pony. He was still on the run, though, and we only caught a glimpse of that magnificent yellow tail streaming in the wind as it turned the next corner at full speed. We only paused long enough to catch a quick gulp of air as we both looked at each other in a knowing fashion. We knew we had to continue the pursuit. Off we went, gasping for air and straining to run just a little bit faster in an effort to gain some distance. At last, we made it to the next corner. Again, we only caught a glimpse of that golden tail and his rear hooves as he toyed with our chase as if it were a game. The scenario repeated itself until we were back where we started and the pony we wanted so badly had vanished into thin air. If you still believe The Way can make fantasy come true, I hope you find your pony someday. Really, I do.

Hang in there, Roy. Change is always right around the corner.

http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/12/15/obama-gets-the-fake-sign-language-interpreter-treatment-on-snl/

"Twi's cult-sure was a commune." Yes, this presents a bit of a dilemma. How do you isolate people from mainstream society and expect them to meld with the masses at the same time?

On a somewhat more serious note, it's important to understand the meaning of "culture". Oftentimes, when we hear people use the term in a social sense, they are really only referring to particular aspects of culture, such as the fine arts, aristocratic lifestyle, refined mannerisms and so forth. In reality, the word has a much broader significance. Fast food, for example, is part of our present "culture". Public education is part of our "culture". With that thought in mind, I think it's safe to say that The Way had virtually no impact on our current culture.

Like trying to light a fire with a wet match.

"I don't know if that's enough to close the case for everyone." Can we get a show of hands?

A friend of a friend of mine told me he understood every word the guy was signing.

Everything we do (and don't do) affects someone, somewhere, somehow. I agree with that. That's really more of a subject for discussion in a philosophy oriented forum. Wierwille's "Word in Culture" was really a veiled sales campaign, meant to redefine and broaden our idea of the market. It was geared toward saturating that market with his "product". Up until then, generally speaking, we were somewhat limited in who we considered potential customers. We had a niche product. With this new campaign, Wierwille was expanding the definition of his customer base to include parts of the population that had previously been overlooked. Create a need and desire for the product and then sell it. It's a simple marketing strategy that we see being used all around us. Why not use it to sell PFAL related goods? That's what it was all about--selling PFAL to every nook and cranny of the population that may have otherwise been overlooked.