WordWolf

"Meet me at Omar's. Be ready for me. I'm going after that truck." "How?" "I don't know, I'm making this up as I go."

"Miracle on 34th Street." Different theme on this thread, I see.

I vaguely recall an episode where someone had a piece of jewelry where it shapechanged, the first hint Odo supposedly had of his own species. The rest of it's not coming to me.

I recognize the "Vienna Boys Choir" comment. This is "Once Bitten." IIRC, this was before Jim Carrey was "discovered." It's one of a few movies I've seen where it's a better movie if you miss the first 5 minutes and jump in starting the SECOND scene. I also didn't recognize CLEAVON LITTLE. There's an actor who doesn't get around very often. Was that Lauren Hutton as the vampire?

Seems like some of us might want to look into things, instead of just jumping to the conclusion that they have all THEIR facts straight, but the GSC'ers do NOT...

"the Way:Living in Love." pg-210 ""Do you know that three times in those early years people tried to kill me?" he remarks suddenly, facing me squarely. I wait, hoping for details, but Doctor relaxes his shoulders in a barely noticeable gesture, and then launches into a new theme. "

The whole concept of vpw as the MOGFOT- or there BEING one at all- was an oral tradition. He was never fool enough to put it in writing.

BTW, citizens from the rest of North and South America would appreciate it if we stopped calling ourselves "America", as if we were the only country in this hemisphere....

Is this the DS9 episode where the other changeling arrives on the station, and Odo has to deal with it?

Just from my thinking, in my opinion, vpw was an inferior, lazy researcher who cut corners whenever and wherever he could, and goofed off whenever and wherever he could. Thus, I don't think he relied on a text or system that was in existence- he would have had to FIND it first, and that would have taken WORK. Even to STUMBLE ACROSS something useful takes working on something else and finding it by accident, which, again, brings us back to doing WORK. Since vpw went to the House of Acts and Haight-Ashbury LOOKING for justifications and excuses to claim that God permitted ORGIES and the like, I conclude vpw hadn't FOUND a sufficient pretext to claim that. (He didn't find one THERE, either.) I think vpw cobbled together what he wanted after being unable to find what he wanted prefabricated. Those who want to follow up on this a little might want to look up a few terms.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catharism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manichaeism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnosticism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnosticism#The_main_features_of_gnosticism

That's how it went. The "example" given was the father of the possessed kid,

I don't have time to address this properly yet. When I do, I'll go into how vpw said that his expression was equivalent to the phrase in the Old Testament, "sons of Belial" or "son of Belial." "Sons of Belial" occurs in Judges 19:22, I Samuel 2:12, II Samuel 23:6, I Kings 21:10. "Son of Belial" occurs in I Samuel 25:17. "Daughter of Belial" occurs in I Samuel 1:16.

In case there's any doubt, yes, that was "the Big Bang Theory."

It's always interesting to watch the double standard of people who want us silenced. "I don't feel bad that twi ruined lives. I was treated nicely in twi. If vpw went around and drugged and raped women, I don't see why I should have any emotional response to that at all. After all, I got what I wanted, why should I care if anyone else's life was ruined?" So, to them, it's perfectly FINE to ruin lives. But TALK ABOUT someone ruining lives, oh, and you've committed The Cardinal Sin. Do ANYTHING but TALK ABOUT someone ruining lives, that's a lot worse than actually RUINING THE LIVES. Or is it just that vpw gets a special pass and can ruin lives and do whatever he wants, but even bringing it up prompts a hypocritical double-standard that finally triggers outrage? BTW, if you hear that your sisters in Christ, for whom Christ died, were assaulted, raped, drugged, molested, or otherwise victimized, and their assailant used the cloak of religion (like twi) to justify himself, and your response is APATHY, Then SHAME ON YOU. SHAME ON YOU, and shame on the family that failed to teach you proper values as you grew up. Jesus was outraged at the exploitation of MONEY in the name of God. What do you think his response will be when he judges these rapists/molesters/evil-doers?

That's right- it wasn't just that everything had deep spiritual significance... vpw started it all by claiming he was the greatest Christian since the Apostle Paul, and then acted as if the amassed forces of evil for the planet would be focusing all their efforts to frustrate or stop him. That's why he had people stand when he entered a room, had musicians play "Hail to the Chief" when he entered a room (like the US President), thought reporters should have treated him as some sort of head of state of a country, made up a seal to stand behind as if he was the US President, and had a plane for his use like the US President, even calling it a name similar to the President's "Air Force One" ("Ambassador One".) The idea he might be in danger of assassination was entirely his own, and he had bodyguards who, in some cases, literally expected that people WERE trying to kill him. With all that. it's almost a footnote that vpw was always blaming everything he didn't like- traffic jams, static cling, whatever- as movements of the devil.

"Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fur. Happy kitty, sleepy kitty, purr, purr, purr." "You know, you two make a cute couple." "Oh no, we're not...a couple. We're singles...like...those individually wrapped pieces of cheese that are next to each other...but...stay separate...like...just friends." "Did I touch a nerve there?" "Oh yeah." "Look, you are a great guy, and it is the things you love that make you who you are." "I guess that makes me large breasts."

Ok, I'll try again. Hopefully, nobody will decide to break the few rules we have again, and we can just play right. "Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fur. Happy kitty, sleepy kitty, purr, purr, purr."

Amazing how many people show up here, spend a lot of time in the "About the Way" forum to the exclusion of the other forums, then have the nerve to be surprised the discussions are "ABOUT THE WAY". In this PARTICULAR case, the poster's been around and has posted extensively in the Political forum. That means he's either CLUELESS about there being other forums-even when he's POSTED IN THEM- or he's DELIBERATELY LYING in an attempt to get people to NOT check things out for themselves. Me, I like to play the games, but some people prefer to "dwell on negatives" while complaining about "those who dwell on negatives."

Here's some threads on the subject, from different angles...

One of vpw's main "examples" of this "believing equals receiving" was this anonymous mother (whom I'm convinced never existed) who worried about her child every day when seeing her child off to school, and who-according to vpw- killed her child by way of worrying about her child. I bumped up another thread where we discussed that- I'm convinced MOST parents worry about their kids, and MOST parents get their kids back unharmed. I can also state PERSONALLY that NOT having your parents worry is no protection against disaster striking before they see you next. ======================== A man begins to get a crippling paranoia he will become a car-crash statistic as he drives, but after a pep-talk, he returns to being a safe driver. (Ok, this one is possible, but hardly a "law"- it's more how someone can cause a self-fulfilling prophecy, or follow a pep-talk.) A pair of men sit in a room and focus their minds on their goal- which then shows up and makes itself known to them, all as the result of their sitting in the room and focusing. They become rich philanthropists, but nobody likes them despite their charitable contributions. (And yet we can't FIND a record of them- is it possible they never existed?) BTW, this story is in TW:LiL and made a big impact on lcm, as he himself recorded in his own book, "vp and me". ========================= How was this described in TWLIL? "There were two men in Van Wert." "Now, they got together every morning at 5am and believed together for an hour. Every morning. I don't know what they called it. But they would set their minds on an agreed project. They never spoke; just got together every morning and both concentrated on whatever it was, until it came to pass." "They just got together and put their minds on it every single morning for a couple of weeks, and lo and behold, one day suddenly some guy who wanted to sell his distillery just called them up, and asked if they wanted to buy it. They'd never heard of the guy with the distillery before. He found them. Yep, they made millions, gambled, won. One man set up a foundation for children from broken homes, also built the YMCA, YWCA and a hospital. It was something." "I used to watch how they operated. I was a minister there in Van Wert....here were the two meanest guys you could ever want to meet. Nobody liked them because they were so successful and no one else could hold a candle to them." =============== My conclusion was that these men in his congregation in Van Wert NEVER EXISTED. They had no names-but he studied them for weeks and weeks. He supposedly built part of his understanding of the "LAW" of believing on them. They gave generously to their community-and the community HATED them, including the Christians. They were incredibly mean, but gave generously. He just happened to know these guys got together 5am and sat in silence in a room. (Did he have a camera in the room?) These imaginary folk are just there to exist as examples. vpw's actual degree was in HOMILETICS, so he was trained in INVENTING a story when a real one wasn't handy.

Bumping this up to the top....

http://www.amazon.com/Powers-Testing-Psychic-Supernatural-Korem/dp/B001FFPEQO I read this back in college. Dan Korem wrote the book "Powers (testing the psychic and supernatural.)" Dan Korem is a stage magician. Where his book becomes relevant to the discussion here is in how he said a stage magician would fake the early plagues-if limited to the technology present at the time. The first fake would have to be the staff to snake. He said it could be accomplished with a collapsible staff which contained a snake straightened in it. (That's the one I'm least certain about.) The second fake would have to be the water turning red. They had dyes back then, including red dyes. Being unseen while adding the dye would be sleight-of-hand. The third fake would be producing frogs. Stage magicians can "produce" objects to hand. They could present a frog, or possibly a few if they were small frogs. The fourth fake would have to produce a cloud of biting insects. The stage magicians of the time would be unable to CONCEAL a cloud of biting insects, so they can't fake this one.

It is said that if a frog is placed in a pot of water, and the temperature is raised VERY, VERY slowly, he won't notice the change and die as the water boils. A number of people have said they've felt that wasn't unlike their experience in twi, where change happened very, very slowly, and they looked around one day and realized the organization they were in bore no resemblance to the one they joined. It was rather slowly that the "temperature"- the rules, the legalism- was raised, and it SLOWLY trapped them in a prison they didn't even notice. If someone's lowering the "temperature" of twi for now, remember that this isn't even the first time. Supposedly it happened about 1990 and again when lcm left. Then, the "temperature" was raised VERY, VERY slowly.....

"Look, a check. She paid me everything she owes me. She left me, but she learned something. She's a responsible person, or whatever." " We can go to bed, maybe get in a little quickie." "No. With you, never a quickie. Always a longie." "What do you say to that?" "I would say, leave Cindy alone and find yourself a nice Jewish girl, Doctor!" "Huh? Oh, sh*, it's the OTHER one, isn't it?" "I think they're from the government." "How do you know?" "They're wearing shoes." "It's dudes like you that give this neighborhood a bad name!" "You have 30 seconds to tell me where Miss Sondheim is, or..." "Or what? You'll eat your lunch in my office?" "No, my lunch will eat YOU." "...three silver bullets through the heart!" "Jeffrey!" "No, Rosenberg, that is a werewolf." "A werewolf? Really? Are you sure?" "It's a black chicken! Come here, black chicken! Come get in the pot!" "Come back! Come back, black chicken! At least leave us an egg or something!" "Children of the night, SHUT UP!" "I never drink wine, and I do not smoke sh*." "There is one small disadvantage. We can only live by night." "Oh, that's all right with me. I mean, I could never really get my sh* together till 7:00, anyway." "I thought you were having fun." "Fun? How would you like to go around looking like a head waiter for 700 years?" "Without me, Transylvania will be as exciting as Bucharest... on a Monday night."

Correct- the "outreach" is by just EXISTING, and people find their way here. That's how I got here, and how most people got here, not even by recommendation.