waysider

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. SOURCE

Birds of a feather flock together..

Sunesis once told of an incident she witnessed. It seems she was seated under a shade tree with Wierwille, having a casual conversation. A third party happened along and Wierwille instantly went into attack mode, ripping this guy a new one. When he left, Wierwille smiled, made some sort of comment about how sometimes you have to put people in their place and shifted right back into casual conversation as if nothing had happened. Was it real, Was it staged? Either way, that's not a behavior you would expect of someone who is supposed to be a man of the cloth. edit:spelling

Were they genuine or just another calculated part of the indoctrination process?

Twinky said: Was it merely uncontrolled anger? Or was it in reality very carefully controlled anger, to elicit maximum stress and fear in the hearts of watchers - in case they themselves did something wrong. Perhaps it was a bit of both. I have wondered this same thing as well. There were many times in FellowLaborers when it seemed as if it was scripted and rehearsed. In fact, there was a specific incident, involving threatened dissolution of the program, that I came to find out, years later on GSC, was being duplicated at the same time for the Way Corps. Coincidence? I have my doubts.

The guy was a phoney, an actor. He found himself, center stage, in the heat of a crucial scene, with his fly open. Why people continue to idolize and exalt this bum is beyond comprehension.

Ever notice how, when Mr. Wierwille's character gets called into question, there are those who insist on drawing others into some sort of discussion of Biblical parallels? "Oh, what about David? What about Jesus?,blah, blah, blah." We don't live in Biblical times and Wierwille wasn't a Biblical figure. He was just a two-bit con man from Cornfield County who used the Bible to cloak his deception. He had an ego the size of a '58 Buick and couldn't stand to be one-upped. It's really just that simple.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHeCniYa2Us&feature=related

Still, it makes more sense than "Lo Shanta la maka see tay".

All I got was depressed.

A crutch? I don't know. Maybe more like support hose.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mF_XB5xrHS4

I never moved too far up the leadership ladder...twig leader, twig area coordinator, class instructor. So, my memories of confrontations (and there were many) weren't usually related to any leadership position I held. My most fiery confrontations, instead, came as a mere participant of the FellowLaborer program and had lots to do with dissent. One such confrontation came as a result of choosing to spend some private time with my new bride instead of cleaning our FellowLaborer "house". Oh, the shame of it. Imagine my selfishness...wanting to spend time with my wife instead of cleaning the toilet. I hope some day I'll be forgiven.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opqjh2jjIM0&feature=related

I'm not here. Leave your new age revelations at the beep....*BEEP*

Drink Bear Whiz Bear. It's in the water. (That's why it's yellow.)

Men never lived on Earth. Dogs flew space ships.

Our forefathers took drugs Next time, I'll talk to you about gravity and its opposite, comedy.

I was right about the comet. All must learn to play the piano.

"There's a seeker born every minute."

"Blame the victim." That's the connection. It was "our fault" for not believing. It was "the fault" of the O.T. people for being disobedient. But, the idiom has an added element in that it attempts to explain why God didn't intervene for a positive outcome. Here, you have to rely quite heavily on the idea that people in the O.T. could not understand spiritual matters and therefore, had to be given examples they could understand by their five senses. I don't see any way to draw from this concept without first accepting 1.) dispensationalism/to whom it's written, 2.) Spiritual understanding, in light of the difference between *spirit in* and *spirit on*, 3.) accepting that believing equals receiving, and 4.) The consequences of disobedience. Putting all four of these together at the same time is something that seems to be unique to The Way and its derivatives.

Whadda ya mean late? The night is still young! :P Oh, sorry. That was your clue. Heh Nope. Don't recognize it.