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William

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Everything posted by William

  1. Bruce played bass guitar in a band called "Heirborn" in Michigan in 1985-86. They competed in the talent contest at the ROA in '86.
  2. Randy was Colorado LC when I was a WOW in Boulder in 1986. Took Rise and Expansion at his house on the outskirts of Denver.
  3. John was the coordinator for the foundational pfal class I took in Lansing, MI October 1985. Whether by design or not, the date of the first session of that class was 10/10/85.
  4. At the age of 17 when I first got involved with twi, I pushed a mower around my twig coordinator's lawn every weekend for a month. In exchange, he paid for me to attend the foundational class, which was $40 at the time. In hindsight, I think I'd rather have the cash in my pocket.
  5. Having worked for several public officials including members of Congress, I can relate from personal experience that members of Congress are not legally sworn into office using a book of any sort. The public ceremony involving the use of a holy book, which takes place after members are legally sworn in, is merely a photo opportunity. The fact that Congressman Ellison chose to use Thomas Jefferson's Quran for his photo opportunity illustrates to me that he has a deep respect for the religious freedom and tolerance that America's founding fathers stood for. Below are just a few quotes from Jefferson on the topic of religion: "Ignorance is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing than he who believes what is wrong." "Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity." "But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." "Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because if there be one he must approve of the homage of reason more than that of blindfolded fear." "Where the preamble declares, that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed by inserting 'Jesus Christ,' so that it would read 'A departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion;' the insertion was rejected by the great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mohammedan, the Hindoo and Infidel of every denomination." (This quote is in reference to the Virginia Act for Religious Freedom.) "Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law." "When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness..."
  6. Hearing imaginary voices in your head is a symptom of psychosis.
  7. Any excuse for the Republicans to delay the swearing in of the Democratic controlled 110th Congress. <_<
  8. William

    The Law Firm of...

    What's the difference between a good lawyer and a great lawyer? A good lawyer knows the law, but a great lawyer knows the judge.
  9. For what it's worth, I think the debate on this doctrinal issue is as devoid of merit as the debate over how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. There are wonderfully spiritual people on both sides of the unitarian/trinitarian divide, and it makes no sense to let such petty differences get your dander up. As a historical footnote many of the founding fathers of the US, including Jefferson and Paine, did not believe in the divinity of Jesus yet they respected and followed his teachings.
  10. waysider, I'm not really sure how to respond to the issues you've brought up. TWI has had three different presidents over the years, each one with a different approach to recruitment and mind control. Perhaps a forum poll can be posted to get an idea of how widespread the use of sexual motivation as a recruiting tactic is. I can only talk about my experiences. In my case, I don't think it was a conscious effort to seduce me into her twig, but the signs that I had the hots for her were not hard to miss, and while we never actually had sex, she never said or did anything to discourage my teenage hormonal urges. As far as PTSD is concerned, I'm not a doctor, so consult a mental health professional before taking my advice. When PTSD is the result of military combat, it's somewhat different than that caused by many traumatic experiences in the civilian world. Many of the symptoms are the same, but combat related PTSD is inflicted on an individual by both sides in the conflict, and much of it can be self-inflicted guilt and shame associated with deliberately killing other people, which is seldom the case in non-combat related PTSD. Many people are misdiagnosed with PTSD who actually have Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD), a classification included in this year's revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. C-PTSD is characterized by chronic difficulties in many areas of emotional and interpersonal functioning. This relatively new classification came about because PTSD fails to capture C-PTSD sufferers' loss of a sense of safety, trust, and self-worth, their tendency to be revictimized, and their loss of a coherent sense of self. Basically C-PTSD is a combination of the symptoms of PTSD and Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). Many cults, TWI included, are notorious for identifying and preying on people who show symptoms of BPD (simply because they're easier to brainwash), and adding traumatic stress into the psychological equation. My advice to anyone who has been subjected to institutionalized abuse by any cult is to seek professional mental health services. PTSD and related disorders are nothing to be ashamed of. They're merely natural neurochemical reactions to traumatic stress. Personally, I take fish oil and St. John's Wort, eat a low sugar, low gluten diet, get plenty of exercise, and participate in group therapy. Many people see results taking Valerian root, nature's Valium, but it carries a slight risk of severe liver damage. There are a variety of commercially available herbal teas and capsules that contain anxiolytic herbs.
  11. I was involved with twi for only six years (for a more detailed account of my story, see my post in the "My Story" forum here), from shortly after VPW's death in 1985 to 1991, although most of the last four years I was on active duty in the military with very limited contact with other followers. Mostly I just listened to their tapes and read their publications during my active duty military years. In the years prior to my enlistment, there were good and bad memories, but in hindsight, I'd have to say whether the memories were good or bad, they had little to do with the organization, and a lot to do with the people I was associating with at the time. My fondest memory of my years in twi had nothing to do with the organization, other than I was a WOW at the time it occurred. Shortly after I arrived where I was sent and got settled into an apartment, I was sitting on the couch shortly before "pumpkin hour" reading the Bible when I happened to look up toward the sliding glass door that led to the balcony to see a full moon in the clear night sky with a rainbow completely encircling it. It was a natural phenomenon that I've never seen before or since. I excitedly dragged my two WOW sisters out onto the balcony to see it, and they were as awestruck as I was. My interim corps WOW sister quoted Psalm 19:1, "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork." The three of us interpreted this beautiful natural occurance as a sign from God that our WOW year would bring great blessings. Unfortunately, we all left before the year was over, with me being the first to go. After my discharge from the military, my memories of my twi involvement are mostly bad. Things had changed drastically that I didn't notice in the tapes and magazine issues that I received in the mail while I was on active duty. I returned from a combat tour of duty in Kuwait and Iraq to find that most of the caring, loving "leaders" I knew before had become overly critical of those whom they were responsible for "leading" and yelling at them rather than calmly and rationally explaining things with a loving attitude. Since I was recently in a war zone, I was and still am coping with the psychological trauma associated with firsthand experience of war. I came to the conclusion before I even left the Persian Gulf that what my country had done to the people of Iraq was a heinous criminal act, and I was so ashamed of my participation in it that I couldn't find the courage to even talk about what I had experienced until three years ago. The worst memory of my post-military involvement with twi, about 6 months after my discharge, involved a branch coordinator who got in my face and yelled at me like he was some kind of wannabe drill instructor. I don't remember exactly why he was yelling at me, but he said things like, "You better get your head straight with God, mister..." and other miscellaneous "renew your mind" crap. After putting up with 90 minutes or so of his impersonation of Sgt. Hartman in Full Metal Jacket something inside me snapped, and before either of us knew it, I had grabbed him by the larynx and slammed him against a wall. I pinned him there as I screamed a string of obscenities at him, telling him in no uncertain terms that my relationship with God was none of his business. It took three people to pull me off of him. When they got me to sit down, I was an emotional wreck, shaking and crying uncontrollably. I realized that I could have easily killed the guy with my bare hands just by squeezing a little harder on his adam's apple and crushing it. They knew I was a recently discharged veteran, but because of the shame and guilt that kept me from talking about my combat experience, they had no clue what they were dealing with as far as my fragile psyche was concerned. Of course they all thought I was possessed, and tried casting out the devil spirits. When that didn't work, they shunned me and refused to let me in the house I shared with four other followers to collect my personal belongings. I had nowhere to go except hitchhike 170+ miles to my parents house, where I decided to end my involvement with twi once and for all. I think all the factors that influence how those involved with twi (or any other cult for that matter) view the memories they've collected of their involvement could fill an entire volume of an encyclopedia. I was a 17 year old kid when I took the foundational class, and generally speaking, the younger you are, the easier it is for others to manipulate your mind. When twi's brainwashing techniques started to change from the subtle friendly seduction I was subjected to early on, to more overt militaristic brainwashing techniques like "face meltings" it got to a point where it hit a raw nerve in me that triggered an adrenaline induced fight-or-flight response.
  12. William

    Gerald Ford

    Sorry, but I don't share your admiration of Mr. Ford. He was the last surviving member of a cabal of criminals known as the Warren Commission, which perpetrated the biggest government cover-up in American history. As a president, he was not accountable to the American public, because he was appointed rather than elected. Since Nixon was never convicted of any crimes, his pardoning was inexcusable. A presidential pardon should never be used as a "get out of jail free card" just because there's a chance of conviction.
  13. This is my first, and hopefully not my last post here. At present, I am only comfortable with referencing all dates I can remember, some of the names, and only the vaguest descriptions of locations. If you are able to figure out my identity from the information provided in this or any future posts, keep it to your f***ing self. I'm a dysfunctional Gulf War veteran coping with post-traumatic stress disorder, so to any of you wayfers lurking out there in hopes of tracking down my whereabouts and harassing me, this is your first and only warning. Leave me the f*** alone if you don't want any broken bones or worse. I was "witnessed to" (more like seduced) by a physically attractive female high school classmate (like most 17 year old boys I was willing to do just about anything given the incentive of possibly losing my virginity) during my junior year shortly after VPW's death in 1985, so I never met the original snake oil vendor himself except via books, videotape and audiotape. My first session of the PFAL Foundational class took place on October 10, 1985, after the previously mentioned classmate graduated from high school and went WOW I took the PFAL Intermediate class in my senior year (1986), and after graduating from high school I got a summer job and saved my money to go WOW. At my first and only ROA, I heard a lot of family corps teens (I was still a teen myself at the time) refer to corps week as "score week" so I suspected there was some premarital sex going on at least among family corps teens, but being young, dumb and full of *** myself, I didn't think much of it. I wound up living 5,300 feet up in the beautiful Rocky Mountains with my WOW brother and two WOW sisters, and other wayfers as neighbors in our apt complex including three WOW brothers from the previous year's WOW family. I ended up taking the Rise and Expansion class while I was there. During my time in the field, the most amazing and beautiful natural phenomenon I witnessed was a rainbow well after dark in a complete circle around the full moon, and amazingly there was no precipitation visible or reported on the local TV newscast that evening. My WOW brother was busy spinning pizza dough that evening, but when I saw it, I excitedly dragged my WOW sisters out onto our third floor apt balcony to see it. Since it was early in our WOW year, we interpreted it as a sign from God of great things to come for us. Great things that never happened. Years later I found out that this phenomenon is common at high altitudes during sustained high speed winds that blow snow off the mountaintops into the air in large clouds, where the ice crystals act as prisms. I read recently on another site about TWI that Rick P***, the Branch Coordinator where I was a WOW, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud a couple years after I left the WOW field, and was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in the federal pen, 3 years probation, and over a half million dollars in restitution, for misappropriating contributions from other wayfers to fund shady real estate deals. Rick and my interim corps WOW sister were responsible for kicking me out of my WOW family (claiming that I was "too young in the Word to handle the WOW commitment"), but at least Rick was kind enough to misappropriate enough contributions to buy me a one-way Greyhound ticket back home. After a few months back home of going to Twig meetings, I decided join the US Navy as a Hospital Corpsman in the Fleet Marine Force assigned to a Marine infantry unit. After eight weeks of boot camp, during my nine weeks of A school, I tried desperately to find a Twig where I was stationed, but was unable to, and gave up trying for the remaining 191 weeks of my active duty military career. the only TWI propaganda I was exposed to during this time was the magazine, audio tapes and other mailings. After combat duty in Kuwait and Iraq in 1991 I was honorably discharged, but left feeling that what my country did to the people of Iraq was criminal and I was so ashamed of taking part in it that I couldn't find the courage to talk about what I'd done and seen until three years ago. While my discharge was being processed, I made some phone calls and found a four bedroom house within an hour's drive of New Knoxville that was owned by someone who was a current WOW elsewhere, and was being leased by a single (at the time) male Branch Coordinator, a married apprentice corps couple who of course shared a bedroom, and a single female who worked on staff at HQ. After witnessing firsthand the horror of war, I knew I needed a healing environment, and I was too naive to realize that a house full of wayfers (a corps grad and two apprentice corps to boot!) was exactly what I didn't need at that time in my life. As a result of my previously mentioned pent up feelings of guilt and shame, my new housemates knew I was a recently discharged vet, but I didn't disclose my combat duty. I moved into the vacant bedroom and shared the rest of the house with these other wayfers, attending regular Twig meetings and going to Sunday services at HQ every two weeks or so, until I started showing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder due to my tour of combat duty, which they of course diagnosed as "devil spirit possession." I knew they were wrong, and I knew damn well what was wrong with me thanks to the medical training I received in the Navy, but the mental scars of combat were still too fresh and raw to look at on my own, let alone bare them to public view. In hindsight, I don't blame them for concluding that I was possessed. At that point in my life, my emotional balance was very fragile. One incident that stands out in my mind is losing my temper while being "reproved" by one of my housemates for something petty that I have long since forgotten. Before both of us knew what happened, I had him pinned to the wall with my left fist clenched around his larynx, screaming at the top of my lungs with spit flying everywhere, "My relationship with God is between me and Him, so just f***ing butt out a**hole! I don't need your f***ing wannabe drill instructor bulls**t attitude!" I was told to leave again, but this time with nothing but the clothes on my back and a few bucks in my pocket. I hitchhiked 170+ miles to my parents house, collapsed into my mother's bewildered embrace and sobbed uncontrollably when she answered my knock on the door. It was now late 1991, and we hadn't shared so much as a phone call between us since I left home in August of 1986. We had 5 years of catching up to do. In the 15 years since I cut all ties with TWI, I have healed considerably, although I'm still living with the psychological damage of combat. I have prospered financially in the business that my mother started shortly before my TWI involvement began. In recent years, I have become quite actively involved in the peace movement, working with groups like Veterans for Peace and Iraq Veterans Against the War, and well-known individuals like Gold Star Families for Peace co-founders Cindy Sheehan and Lila Lipscomb. The peace movement has done more to help me heal than any cult or even mainstream church ever could.
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