PFAL Perception was EVERYTHING

[skyrider]

The PERCEPTION of pfal was stacked.....in wierwille's favor.

* ...for months, some of the sign-ups were "building expectations" of what this class would be.

* ...WOW ambassadors were excited to run the class, because it proclaimed THEIR success.

* ...the class instructor coached the grads to act excited, applaud and laugh at vpee's jokes.

* ...twi claimed that ALL OF YOUR QUESTIONS WILL BE ANSWERED by the end of the class.

* ...oftentimes, there were more GRADS in the pfal class, than new students.

* ...if everyone else is SO EXCITED about this, then what am I missing?

* ...no one gets missed. Everyone manifests power from on high.

* ...peer pressure, as the 12th session arrived. No utterance is gibberish.

And.....to those who had doubts, well you just need to sit thru the class AGAIN. See, it's a lot of information and you learn more every time you sit thru pfal. Be patient. You get to sit in subsequent foundational classes.....free.

Learning is an exciting adventure, isn't it?

The indoctrination process has begun. You sign up for the next class to "fill in the blanks" where you still have doubts. You cannot help but doubt yourself.......others seem to "get it." Sure, there are nuggets of truth plagiarized from other men's works......but THE WHOLE PACKAGE? Masterfully put together?

Wierwille had employed the art of marketing.....PERCEPTION IS EVERYTHING. Having seven students sit in a quiet setting to hear the pfal class was not nearly as effective as bolstering support with ten grads who are actively coached to respond. And, let's not forget about the assigned-undershepherder.....the one who, most likely, signed the person up for the class and is responsible to monitor their progress and alleviate their doubts [ie...help recruit them].

MLM 101

[waysider]

Yep. MLM 101 (No student left behind)

[skyrider]

Yep. MLM 101 (No student left behind)

Oh.....there were students left behind alright.

Just that....they didn't show up for the next session, that's all. How many times have we heard

or witnessed, in our experiences of the drop-off rate before session 12? What was it? 60%?

On average, the start of class of 10 students yields 4 who actually "graduate" to go on.

Then.....of the 4 students who "go on" another 2 quit twi activities after a couple of months.

Yet, the soldiering marches on.....recruiting daily for more sign-ups. See, it was simply

retentive statistics.......a numbers game, if you will.

The PERCEPTION was.......the committed stayed faithful to twi. That was the public relations doctrine.

In reality, those who exited had numerous reasons for leaving....of which, deception and exploitation

were duly noted.

.

Edited June 22, 2014 by skyrider

[Twinky]

Sad but true ... one year we were out Lightbearers. We got a class together (at the second attempt) and it ran and completed with all the students. One of the lads in it was soooooo proud of "graduating." Said he'd never graduated from any class in his life before.

The local believers were a really great bunch, well, one family among them was. God, I wonder where that lad is now? I know the local family (God bless 'em, I think of them often) would really have done their best for him.

[WordWolf]

Oh.....there were students left behind alright.

Just that....they didn't show up for the next session, that's all. How many times have we heard

or witnessed, in our experiences of the drop-off rate before session 12? What was it? 60%?

On average, the start of class of 10 students yields 4 who actually "graduate" to go on.

Then.....of the 4 students who "go on" another 2 quit twi activities after a couple of months.

Yet, the soldiering marches on.....recruiting daily for more sign-ups. See, it was simply

retentive statistics.......a numbers game, if you will.

The PERCEPTION was.......the committed stayed faithful to twi. That was the public relations doctrine.

In reality, those who exited had numerous reasons for leaving....of which, deception and exploitation

were duly noted.

.

My first class?

7 of us were signed up.

6 of us made it to Session 1.

3 of us made it to Session 12.

That was me, the wife of a coordinator, and the son of a coordinator.

In fairness, all 3 of the remaining 3 stuck around...

Yep. MLM 101 (No student left behind)

In the context of "perception was everything",

that means the PERCEPTION of no student left behind, via MLM.

We certainly were given that PERCEPTION,

and if anyone WAS left behind,

it was their fault and their choice,

so it didn't count.

[skyrider]

In the context of "perception was everything",

that means the PERCEPTION of no student left behind, via MLM.

We certainly were given that PERCEPTION,

and if anyone WAS left behind,

it was their fault and their choice,

so it didn't count.

Oftentimes....if someone dropped out,

it was deemed the FAULT of the class instructor.

Where did he miss the spiritual revie that this student left?

See......the twi-doctrine was that "the ministry BE NOT BLAMED."

How freakin' convenient and nice cover for the mog-doctrine of pfal..!!!

[Broken Arrow]

Oftentimes....if someone dropped out,

it was deemed the FAULT of the class instructor.

Where did he miss the spiritual revie that this student left?

See......the twi-doctrine was that "the ministry BE NOT BLAMED."

How freakin' convenient and nice cover for the mog-doctrine of pfal..!!!

Yeah, then there's those of us who said, "Sign me up for that job!!!

[Rocky]

And as we've come to realize, BECAUSE we continued to learn, IN SPITE OF twi, that it's all bull***t.

[johniam]

I had no preconceived ideas about Christianity before taking pfal. My first class was 12 new students, 10 of which finished the class. Over the years, I saw most people who didn't finish the class had help. There was some person in their life who constantly contradicted the information in the class after every session. A minister, a friend, somebody. Hard to learn anything with one foot on the gas and one foot on the brake at the same time.

The classic pfal sodomization I saw was in 1987 or 88. These people really made us look stupid. It was a tape class, 8 new students. But 2 (at least 2) of the new students were plants. Not directly by the adversary, but by some megachurch reverend. To the uninformed, a plant was a term used to describe a new student in a class who was 'planted' there by the adversary for the purpose of sabotaging the impact of the class. These people were on a "mission from God". Which god?

One of the plants was a pretty girl who acted very unassuming. But at every single break, like clockwork, she would run outside and her boyfriend would zoom up in his pickup truck and whisk her off during which time she would eject the mini cassette tape and replace it with another. We didn't suspect this at the time. The boyfriend always got her back in time for the next session. So these good legitimate Christians' consciences allowed them to violate a copyright. Nice.

The other plant was a large bodied guy who was signed up for the class by someone other than whoever signed the pretty girl up. We had no reason to suspect they knew each other. The big guy was there for muscle just in case the girl got caught, cause you know these cult people have no consciences, they'd smack this girl around you know. The class ended and most of the new students just disappeared.

At this time I was an assistant manager for a Burger King. A year later, I was working on a Saturday afternoon and guess who should walk in? The pretty girl, her boyfriend, the big guy, and another girl. I was dressed in my polished and shining polyester mgrs. uniform. They couldn't place where they'd seen me before. I said the name of the believer who signed the big guy up for the class. They looked at me, then at each other, then at me again, bewildered. I enjoyed the cheap thrill of watching them for a few seconds, then took their orders and got them their food without further incident.

Even though they stole a copy of the class, I tend to look at it as...just maybe somebody who listened to those tapes would benefit from real spiritual light rather than the religious counterfeit.

[skyrider]

The classic pfal sodomization I saw was in 1987 or 88.

classic?

pfal sodomization?

[johniam]

What? Too graphic for you?

[WordWolf]

Talking about perception being everything...

I had no preconceived ideas about Christianity before taking pfal.

You grew up in the USA.

You had preconceived ideas about Christianity before pfal.

You hadn't articulated them as preconceived ideas.

But you'd heard of Christianity, you'd heard of Christians,

you'd had some kind of exposure, one way or another.

So, unless your brain was missing functionality in most of the cognition centers,

you had SOME preconceived ideas.

(If the other case was true, you wouldn't be able to post here and form sentences.)

(snip)

The classic pfal sodomization I saw was in 1987 or 88. These people really made us look stupid.

If anyone was going around, calling difficult students "sodomizers",

then the students didn't need to help make them look stupid.

It was a tape class, 8 new students. But 2 (at least 2) of the new students were plants. Not directly by the adversary, but by some megachurch reverend. To the uninformed, a plant was a term used to describe a new student in a class who was 'planted' there by the adversary for the purpose of sabotaging the impact of the class. These people were on a "mission from God". Which god?

Their PERCEPTION was that they were serving God Almighty.

Your PERCEPTION was that they were serving the evil one.

Then there was the reality, where all of you were serving organizations

but didn't perceive that.

One of the plants was a pretty girl who acted very unassuming. But at every single break, like clockwork, she would run outside and her boyfriend would zoom up in his pickup truck and whisk her off during which time she would eject the mini cassette tape and replace it with another. We didn't suspect this at the time. The boyfriend always got her back in time for the next session. So these good legitimate Christians' consciences allowed them to violate a copyright. Nice.

Apparently,

their church-group was fine with them breaking the law and the spirit of the law.

So was vpw,

who had many such steps in getting pfal to you locally.

twi's kept that up, too-

I think they're still telling people to get big TVs for classes and returning them for full refunds

if they can get them.

The other plant was a large bodied guy who was signed up for the class by someone other than whoever signed the pretty girl up. We had no reason to suspect they knew each other. The big guy was there for muscle just in case the girl got caught, cause you know these cult people have no consciences, they'd smack this girl around you know. The class ended and most of the new students just disappeared.

They were probably safe from physical violence. I never heard anyone advocate or threaten

violence against anyone on the field, only at Root locales, like the Corps or the ROA.

(snip)

Even though they stole a copy of the class, I tend to look at it as...just maybe somebody who listened to those tapes would benefit from real spiritual light rather than the religious counterfeit.

Your PRESENT perception is that the stolen materials were

"real spiritual light rather than the religious conterfeit."

That's an interesting perception.

[chockfull]

I had no preconceived ideas about Christianity before taking pfal. My first class was 12 new students, 10 of which finished the class. Over the years, I saw most people who didn't finish the class had help. There was some person in their life who constantly contradicted the information in the class after every session. A minister, a friend, somebody. Hard to learn anything with one foot on the gas and one foot on the brake at the same time.

And the Pope is Catholic, and bears do their business in the woods. Yes, someone cared about them and didn't want them falling hook line and sinker for teachings of a cult. I would phrase this as it's hard to fall hook line and sinker without cutting off opposing information from friends, family, and ministers.

The classic pfal sodomization I saw was in 1987 or 88. These people really made us look stupid. It was a tape class, 8 new students. But 2 (at least 2) of the new students were plants. Not directly by the adversary, but by some megachurch reverend. To the uninformed, a plant was a term used to describe a new student in a class who was 'planted' there by the adversary for the purpose of sabotaging the impact of the class. These people were on a "mission from God". Which god?

I hope that's a typo with the sodomization comment, otherwise you have issues. I ran tons of classes for years and never heard of the word "plant". I had plenty of people take classes to check it out, or with a church background negative perspective, and others of varying mental backgrounds. However I looked for the good in people and how to help them rather than your perspective.

One of the plants was a pretty girl who acted very unassuming. But at every single break, like clockwork, she would run outside and her boyfriend would zoom up in his pickup truck and whisk her off during which time she would eject the mini cassette tape and replace it with another. We didn't suspect this at the time. The boyfriend always got her back in time for the next session. So these good legitimate Christians' consciences allowed them to violate a copyright. Nice.

When you are hyper-focused on the negative in people, life supplies details. I'm still not sure of what you are accusing them of - copying PFAL tapes in their truck? I would say if they were doing that they were just modeling the behavior of the teacher. They were doing what he did, not what he said. What about the good legitimate Christians' conscience regarding citing your source of material when writing a book? Why is J.E. Stiles book on the Holy Spirit published 3 years before RHST about 70% identical to RHST? Nice.

The other plant was a large bodied guy who was signed up for the class by someone other than whoever signed the pretty girl up. We had no reason to suspect they knew each other. The big guy was there for muscle just in case the girl got caught, cause you know these cult people have no consciences, they'd smack this girl around you know. The class ended and most of the new students just disappeared.

Even your strawman arguments sound like VP logic. Most of the new students in most classes just disappeared. I mean speaking from keeping records and statistics.

At this time I was an assistant manager for a Burger King. A year later, I was working on a Saturday afternoon and guess who should walk in? The pretty girl, her boyfriend, the big guy, and another girl. I was dressed in my polished and shining polyester mgrs. uniform. They couldn't place where they'd seen me before. I said the name of the believer who signed the big guy up for the class. They looked at me, then at each other, then at me again, bewildered. I enjoyed the cheap thrill of watching them for a few seconds, then took their orders and got them their food without further incident.

Wow. People who took a class together later show up at Burger King with other dates or friends. This is amazing. True spiritual sleuth work going on here.

Even though they stole a copy of the class, I tend to look at it as...just maybe somebody who listened to those tapes would benefit from real spiritual light rather than the religious counterfeit.

Well, your sentiments aren't totally lost. I mean the Gideons have similar sentiments which cause them to place Bibles in hotel night stands. As far as random copied PFAL bootlegs out there really changing people's lives for the better, don't know about that one. Would postulate that there are few enough bootlegs, that most of them are owned by ex TWI people so they don't really listen to them often, and that splinter groups wanting to run them would more likely teach their own regurgitated version so as to maintain copyrights.

[waysider]

Sounds like a classic case of

.

"Us, and them

And after all, we're only ordinary men.

Me, and you.

God only knows it's not what we would choose to do."

[Broken Arrow]

Over the years, I saw most people who didn't finish the class had help. There was some person in their life who constantly contradicted the information in the class after every session. A minister, a friend, somebody. Hard to learn anything with one foot on the gas and one foot on the brake at the same time.

You know, the dirty little secret is that PFAL was, well, boring! I mean, it really was. Sometimes that's all the "help" some of these folks needed to drop out.

[waysider]

You know, the dirty little secret is that PFAL was, well, boring! I mean, it really was. Sometimes that's all the "help" some of these folks needed to drop out.

More like the elephant in the parlor. We had to be coached to laugh at jokes that weren't even funny the first time and act "amazed" at the teacher's revelations.

[dmiller]

Never mind.

Edited June 25, 2014 by dmiller

[Rocky]

What? Too graphic for you?

Too nebulous. You really didn't give any one anything to go on as to what you intended by using that term.

Sodomization

You know, other than letting us know where your head is at. :confused:/>

[johniam]

Oh, McGoo, you've done it again.

[chockfull]

Oh, McGoo, you've done it again.

Started us on a rant? It's cool don't worry about it.

[hiway29]

just for the record-it's Magoo.

[skyrider]

The PERCEPTION was.......the committed stayed faithful to twi. That was the public relations doctrine.

In reality, those who exited had numerous reasons for leaving....of which, deception and exploitation

were duly noted.

Perhaps......it would be just as fair to say that THOSE WHO LEFT TWI

shortly after pfal and discarded twi's mog-doctrine and "law of believing" brouhaha....

were in a better position to follow Christianity that those who were

transformed into wierwille ideologues and such.

:o

[waysider]

just for the record-it's Magoo.

Wasn't Magoo that short-sighted guy who couldn't see reality, though he looked straight at it?

Edited June 25, 2014 by waysider

[johniam]

So there's no God and there's no devil. It's all just perception?

quote: I would phrase this as it's hard to fall hook line and sinker without cutting off opposing information from friends, family, and ministers.

Skyrider has forgotten more about this than you and I will ever know.

[johniam]

Magoo was one of the characters in the 1968 movie the Glory Stompers.

quote:

You know, the dirty little secret is that PFAL was, well, boring!

Was it, now? Sure it was. It led to all these posts, didn't it. But, yes, it was boring. Especially all the parts where...let's see...

Sincere religious people who were full of devil spirits. Baptized it and called it Christianity. The fear in the heart and the life of that mother. Plus the integrity of the word to tell on all of them. Yeah, bored the hell out of me.