JavaJane

Considering one of my first posts on GSC was asking how to recover creativity and imagination after involvement with TWI, I have come a long way. The Way taught us that there was a devil spirit around every corner and all things bad were caused by them. I took this concept and made it part of the world my book is set in. And the way possession works in this book is very similar to the way it is explained in the Advanced Class. Treating their fictions and fiction felt really good.

Accidentally... it started out when I first allowed myself to daydream again. And then there was the thinking and questioning. I learn best through stories, so this is the one I told myself. It helped a lot. Stepping back from it being about ME and giving it some distance helped to see it all a lot clearer. More to say, but my battery is fast dying. Post more tomorrow.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MHB47Z3/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_5N-lCb644WFSC hey, fellow GreaseSpots. I wrote this novel as a way to help myself work through all the past s*** in my head from being involved in TWI. (Still haven't worked through ALL of it - that may take the rest of my life.) I started thinking about this main character in 2007 shortly before I left - mainly when I started really considering what free will actually is. The story morphed from there into what it is now. Some of it is based on my experiences in TWI, and some is based on others experiences. And some of it is from other churches I have attended. It is not a memoir by any means. It is fantasy. Urban fantasy to be precise. Full of angelic and demonic beings. The world is built using Christian writings as folklore, as well as drawing from worldwide myth and trying in local (to me) urban legends and magic traditions. Ray's voice is my current voice, post Way. Amanda's voice is my old self from the time I was in. You can read it for free on Kindle Unlimited, or download it for 2.99 in the Kindle Store. It is also available in paperback. If you decide to read it and you enjoy it, please leave a review on Amazon. I am writing under a pseudonym due to the subject matter. You Greasespotters really helped me a lot and I am grateful. I'm hoping this book can help some others gain some empathy for those of us who got trapped/are trapped by cults. Enjoy. I will post more later when I have time tonight. This feels like a big healing accomplishment for me, and without GSC I don't think I would have been able to do it.

Just walked through Complex 3. I can tell you that I am proud of myself. Although I exclaimed "Jesus Christ!!" when I came around the corner and came face to face with a floating bubble of a huge Craig Martindale face, I was able to stand and watch and listen without any sense of fear or anxiety. I was able to face that. Now let's see if I get the old PTSD nightmares tonight.

I'm not going to watch the video yet. I am going down in person in a few days to see it in person. I'll post my review here then.

That God we got out before I had children. Thank God my brain is no longer so ridiculously numbed to the point I wouldn't believe this.

And I have been informed that a Houston branch came by while the artist was not there. The poor intern that had to deal with that....

https://m.chron.com/entertainment/arts-theater/article/Art-Daybook-Inside-the-memory-of-a-cult-13066647.php

Someone brought to my attention that it looked like Ye Olde Wikipedia's entry on TWI got updated by someone recently. Someone with some skills should maybe go fix it before someone gets hurt.

HiAJust thinking about the imagery of snakes and women in mythology and folklore... what came to mind is something that I learned from studying the seven deadly sins, specifically the sin of lust. Often in medieval art lust is depicted as a woman with serpents biting her nipples. It's an interesting depiction of the sin of lust - specifically because it depicts the object of the lust, not the one who is lusting (the artist - generally a male producing art for the male gaze.) serpents are commonly used as a phallic symbol.. when a woman is used to depict the sin of lust by having sexual relations with a serpent, it would seem to indicate the cardinal sin of lust as being the original sin, rather than a "sin" of homosexuality. Lust treats other humans as things to be used rather than as a fully conscious spiritual being worthy of dignity. TWI's full of lust.

For that last one, please use the sound.

Im working my way through this thread page by page... obviously I haven't been on the old gsc for a few. This. This explains why I was asked to move in to the Limb home. I had thought it was because I was considered to be so spiritually mature. It was not a good place for a single 20 something to live. I loved that family a lot. Especially the kids. But it was uncomfortable for them and for me. My social life was basically stopped in it's tracks. Even if I came home sick from work I was sent to my room so as not to disturb or overhear whatever was being done elsewhere in the house. And I couldn't cook or clean to their standard. Constant reproof and correction. They didn't really want me there. And now I see why I was asked.

I remember this ROA. It was my 2nd. The first one i had gone out WOW. I had just turned 21. My parents were in res. Both they AND my WOW team leader jumped on me and the other young adults on my team accusing us of being involved in whatever had happened at the gazebo. We were all confused as to what the heck had gone down at the gazebo. And in my young brain, i was a little upset that I hadn't been considered cool enough by those kids to be invited. I think I had a brother who had been there. He told me it was a bunch of clergy kids who had planned that whole thing. A few main memories of that ROA: 1. My WOW family coordinator was DFAC at that rock. She was too soft hearted to stand up to what was required of her. I remember she would try to be authoritative with us, but her heart wasn't in it. I remember seeing her right after she was dropped (I had no idea what had happened) and she was wearing a hand written nametag instead of her WC one. I was always getting in trouble for forgetting my nametag, so I said (joking) "where's your nametag? SOMEONE WILL THINK YOU GOT DROPPED!" Then I found out she had just come from being stripped of her WC status. I wanted to melt into the ground. I still feel bad about that. 2. We had a girl on our WOW team who had been dropped for being a lesbian in the middle of the year. She was a foundational class grad. We were lucky as a team because we only lost her. Other teams had been decimated, having to move in with other teams because there were so few left. 3. On our way back to ROA from where we were on the field (way out in the SW usa) one of our vehicles broke down with a radiator hose that had split. We fixed it with an "All Roads Lead to The Rock" bumper sticker. We felt like we were super conquerors to come up with that solution and arrive in time for the rock. We took the offending hose with its bumper sticker bandaid to present it to the WOW coordinator, thinking it would be a great example of God working in us to find a way to overcome. Revelation or something. I believe the WOW coordinator was J0hn R◇p.o., but I could be mistaken. He and my WOW team coordinator were annoyed we had even considered they would care. We should have believed better and the car wouldn't have broken in the first place. 4. One of my brothers was slated to go out in the next wave of wows. But the program had been cancelled. Our parents were in residence. He couldn't go back with them. He had nothing and nowhere to go. He ended up in something like a way home in Ann Arbor. Whole life disrupted. 5. I was still in debt when I went WOW. But at the time I left I had been informed my student loans didn't count as debt. In the middle of the year that changed. I didn't have them paid off by the time the rock came around. I was sure martindale would know by revelation that i had debt. Or that they would run credit checks on all the wows. Or something. But no one knew. I should have known then that they had no connection to God at all. (Please excuse grammar and spelling... I typed this all on my phone. And it is a pain in the foot.)

They were in the family corps. Mother Pat, father Dave.