waysider

Probably ticked him off royally that they were studying a subject about which he, himself, knew little and had very few answers.

Many corporations in "the real world" have long since realized they can outsource most of those things a a fraction of the usual in-house cost. Oops! I forgot. The don't have many in-house costs.

I'd start with a summary of his credentials. (I'm a big fan of short stories.)

"The severity of symptoms seems to vary by intensity of involvement, its duration, and whatever personal vulnerabilities a person had before entering TM."-----JK Maybe this is off-topic. I don't know. You decide. I think one big factor that sometimes gets overlooked or, at the least, obscured, is that often times people came into TWI, as they do in any cult, with pre-existing problems. Then, because of the doctrines and dogmas that typify cult thinking, not only were the problems left untreated, they often times were buried deep in the layers of the person's individual "onion". So then, upon exiting the group, the person must not only deal with the problems caused directly by the group, but, also with the problems that pre-existed. Sometimes ironically, hope of conquering these problems may have been what initially attracted the participant in the first place. Some people brought lots of problems with them while others brought relatively few or none. Someone who came into TWI with lots of unresolved problems may need individual help in dealing with those problems in addition to the universal sorts of problems we all face. That's why some benefit most from a forum such as GSC while others benefit most from one on one counseling. Others find they need a customized blend of both. But, as always, that's only my opinion.

A Chet Atkins story (Can't vouch for it's authenticity) ---------------------------------------------------- Chet was in the studio warming up to record and the engineer was listening to him play in the control room. After a few minutes the engineer hit the talk-back button and said to Chet..."man does that guitar ever sound good." Chet stopped playing immediately, stood up and set the guitar in the chair where he had been seated and said to the engineer "how does it sound now?" Food for thought...

Sounds so much like TWI it's creepy. Never knew anyone who suffered from tremors but the rest of the stuff is text book.

I've been in love before. And I know that love is more than just holding hands.

Holy cats! People have been looking for the truth for centuries, millenium, really, and all the while its been hiding in the right or left brain absolutes, juxtaposed betwixt the twain. I should have known. *sigh*

Call and response

CHEAP GAS

So I hope you see That I would love to love you And that she will cry when she learns we are two 'cause I couldn't stand the pain And I would be sad If our new love was in vain

Hi, Miketheorganist Welcome to GSC Have you had a chance to look at some of articles and features here such as "actual errors in PFAL"? There is some very informative material to be found in the non-forum sections of GSC. At any rate, I'm glad you've chosen to join in the merriment. Perhaps the games in "The Reading Room and Gallery" might interest you. Or maybe the Sports Thread or the Doctrinal Forum.

We were talking about early TWI music in chat this morning so I thought I would bring this back up. I really think it still stands up on its musical merits if nothing else. PDSTRO http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea...endID=176765962

Hey, Hey! We're The Primates.

The threads are listed in chronological order of the most recent activity. There were 2 or 3 other threads that were very active during that time, so, my guess is that it simply fell to a lower position on the page. Sometimes a thread that was started years ago will find itself at the top of the page again by virtue of renewed activity and a fairly recent one will drop to the bottom because of inactivity..

Does anybody remember being encouraged to hit up the local car dealers for used car donations? We were supposed to tell them it was tax deductible because it was for a "missionary effort". I never worked up the nerve to try it myself.

The cheap/free labor was only part of the equation. The other part was that it was never good enough. No matter how much of it you did or how well you did it, it was never enough, never up to their standards. Giving them 15 or 20% of your income wasn't good enough; you had to pay your own postage to send it. Yeah, don't just stab me, use my knife. Fellow Laborers was like that. Commit yourself to their service from 5am til midnight. It's still not good enough. They wake you up at 3am to ream you out for not being committed enough, for dropping the ball. No specifics are given, just vague generalities. You feel so dejected. You've given so much. How could you have known that what you were giving wasn't enough, wasn't up to their standards? Is it possible that people who don't understand why the "freebies" were such a big deal only saw part of the equation? Maybe they never had to experience that sense of futility that comes with the other part. That would explain a lot.

Baby It's Cold Outside

Hiya, ClayJay Beatitude is a state of "perfect blessedness". Blessed are the poor---Blessed are the meek---Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness--etc., etc. You are correct in stating it was a cost, not a donation. In my opinion, they called it a "donation" to disguise the fact that the whole thing was really a multi-level-marketing scheme, otherwise known as a pyramid scheme. It also wouldn't have looked too good for an organization that had a tax exempt status as a non-profit organization to openly admit they were charging a mandatory fee, not receiving a voluntary donation. (And welcome to GSC.)

REM said it, I believe it, that settles it.

We must be kindred spirits, Ham. I, too, was always the guy who had to find free meeting rooms, floral arrangements, extra chairs from funeral homes and so forth. I think people must have felt sorry for me because I had a fairly high level of success.

I had forgotten all about the junky, old, run-down equipment we were expected to maintain out of our own pockets. Tape broke on the reel-to-reel? Go buy a splice kit. Bulb burned out on the projector? Go buy a replacement. Don't bother asking HQ to reimburse you, though. You'll be reminded that you should be "believing" God to supply you with the abundance to pay for it all yourself. Yep, they ran a pretty tight ship. Probably just some sort of fluke that they wound up with 55 million dollars worth of assets to show for it.

I'll need to see the transcripts from those meetings. :lol:

Ahhhhhh! The styro cups with teethmarks and lipstick stains. Half fresh grounds mixed with half of yesterday's grounds and a "peench" of salt to cut the bitterness. Such fond memories. *Sigh* Of course, it was really all our fault. We could have just as easily chosen to use fine English chinaware and serve pate instead of cookies. Yes, I'm afraid it's entirely our fault the refreshments were so atrocious.