Irony of ironies. I started lurking here after someone told me that I can't go on the internet and to especially not believe anything I hear from Waydale.
Given that my profession has A LOT to do with computers and the internet, I resented them telling me not to go there!
I couldn't find Waydale, so I did a search and found God's Royal Tapestry, Atlanta Bible Fellowship, Bibel Center, Cortright Fellowship, GSC, Living Epistles, CFF, CES, and a chitload of others. I lurked here as a guest (no handle) for a long time before I started posting. My coming here had nothing to do with the fact that I left TWI, I was leaving anyway. :)-->
Heh! I never even owned a computer until June of 2002, and didn't have internet until August of that year. Somehow, somewhere I found No Way Out. I found criminal news stories there, about folks I had known that used to be in my area, and it intrigued me. Am thinking now, that there was a link there, that led me here.
I have been out since '85, or '86 -- so neither this site (nor that one) had anything to do with my leaving. However --- all the rumors I had ever heard, all the accusations made that I wondered about, all the inconsistencies, and all the stories of "rape, pillage, and plunder" were laid out in such stark detail for me here -- it left no room for doubt as to the veracity of them.
I left back "whenever", because of the crap that was being bandied about, with *no solid evidence*. Finding GSCafe was the equivilant of having a gold deposit, backing up the dollar bills in my pocket.
Thanks Paw, and everyone else too. You all have made me realize that I did the right thing by leaving -- without having regrets.
I got out of TWI back in 1987 while the internet was still strictly government/college only. I was on the Prodigy service until 1995 and posted on the "Religion" board often.
In 1997 I found and posted on the CES board under the name "Thumper" (long story). I happened onto Transnet's No Way Out magazine, but never posted anything there. After that I found Waydale, though I posted under a pseudoname there, I am still using it here, so I ain't tellin' - for now.
Like a couple of others have said, I was lead to GS through a link that someone posted on Waydale just about a week before it closed. I started using my pseudoname here, but started posting as me about two years later (after Paw moved here from Easyboard).
I remember Trancenet, it was closed but viewable when I found it. Wrote somebody there, forget the name. Saw the acronym TWI was being used and searched for that. Got The Welders Institute, not much else. Ran in to Waydale, and so on. I don't remember what year, I think WayDale'd been up a few months before I found it.
I am still in as some of you know, and found GSC and NO WAY OUT some years back. I frequented them often as a lurker and used what I found to fill out my knowledge and pester the leaders. Why pester while still in? The more armed you are the better you will be in a fight. If this is truly a spiritual life then knowing "your enemy" (NOT how I think of GSC..but how they might) is to your advantage. Besides, how will I ever know what I believe if I don't doubt it some? Test it? Put myself on that ledge and see who flys or comes back?
my hope is that this comes off well and is understood.
I was still in in 1998 when a friend who had been out of TWI for quite some time told me about the Trancechat forums. I had wanted to leave for a few years - and finding Trancechat was my "cold waters to a thirsty soul".
The first night I found it, I stayed up all night reading the archives. A lot of it was pretty rough stuff. Some people would get down-right nasty with each other. Because there was little moderation and no screen names or password protection, I could sign on as anyone I wanted - even another poster! There were a lot of problems, but it was all that was around, and it served its purpose at the time.
I started posting as "A_Friend". Then Karl K. asked me if I was a "girl" friend or a "boy" friend - so I called myself "Amie Friend", and stayed that way until the night I left TWI.
When Trancechat closed - I was almost frantic. It was my only link to ex-Way people and an incredible outlet for my "innie" frustrations. But it was only a week or two and Waydale was up and running. There was a guest book at first - and the Documents section. The forum came a bit later.
I loved the original Waydale chat room. The night we got kicked out of TWI, I went into the room and chatted under my real name - letting everyone know I was finally out!
Grease Spot, of course, was practically an extension of Waydale - Paw didn't miss a beat so there was no down-time between the sites.
I think all three sites have proven to be a haven for those of us who didn't have anyone to "talk" to who could understand our TWI involvement and the effects it had on our lives. The fact that GS is still up and running strong and that so many people lurk and post here says volumes about the need for it to continue to exist.
about 1997 or so i had been witnessing to a guy who was a real smart dude. he called me at my office and started asking me questions garnered from a website that had real long names with lots of hash marks, dot dot's and semi colons with ascii characters. very astute questions that i had no answers for. of course being the good little hitler youth that i was i brought it up with my "oberfuhrer" who said to ignore it, move on and have no further contact with this person. but i liked this guy, we had many common interests such as shooting innocent bowling pins with shotgun slugs and 306 rifles and.....
well i did obey my leader until 'bout a year later i became hfc foot- istant and happened to accidentally google or alta vista the name craig martindale. uh oh spagettios! all kinds of anti way stuff came up and after a brief perusal i ran screaming into the night
then the marty martindale thing came down and we were told to stay off the internet. i have always believed in the right to keep and bear arms, and the first ammendment and by now i had a blazing fast 56K modem and did a 'nother search on martindale which linked me to the shut down waydale and i found the very lovely greasespot cafe.
i started posting as ryan cawdor a character from some (what i thought were) very obscure male oriented action adventure novels.
I got a bit of grilling and drilling from a few of you (sudo, satori) and then i started getting some concrete answers to the living hell
that i had called home for over 20 years also known as twi. hope r and excathy and many others were so kind to me even talked with me on the phone etc 2 months after that i resigned as an hfc, stayed in for while with sporadic attendance and many confrontations and arguments with the local dick head leadership.
i told my hfc that i was no longer intersted in being involved because i felt twi was a dishonest and dangerous outfit. after citing many other concerns he turned me over to his way corpse overseer who could not handle what i had to say.
about a day later i gathered with 5 of my closest way friends and told them what i had found out and urged them to join the rebellion.
well, i lost those friends and haven't spoken with them since. they all rejected me despite years of trust and friendship
i am a happy man now, i own a house, play in an all originals band and have made friends with some of the most honest people on the face of the earth. i have a best friend and have been adopted by the most loving family north of the us/canadian border
thank you paw. none of us could have been here without your ballsy stand for the truth.
I was a long, long time out of TWI before coming upon Waydale.
Like someone earlier said, the God's Royal Tapestry and Bo Reahard's site and other small sites led the way...lol. Actually, now that I think about it, it was in a post on God's Royal Tapestry that someone expressly mentioned Waydale by name, with the heavy exhortation NOT to go there.
So, I did, natch. LOL.
That was a find. Here was me,a the ultimate cyber-spazz, tapped into this website. I spent an obscene amount of time there, reading everything, everyday.
Wheras, it really really helped to fill in the blanks, connect the dots, etc., the constant Oprah-fest (and sometimes pure vitreol and bona-fide nutsitude) of early Waydale is meat for a good screenplay, in and of itself. Victoria and catmandu and a host of other sad-but-trues with any number of names and agendas lived there along with the rest of a hungry population.
Waydale chatroom was a spiritual wormhole...it WAS a real live happening...lol. Very addictive. Sheesh...babies got birthed in thare!
And socks, my little Logos friend, I remember when you first posted...you and the Zbee and many others will forever be dear to me.
found this last year- Been out since 1989-90. I had not tried to contact anyone, or anything related with the way-left the first husband (which was quite the sticky situation) and it was vital that he not find me...So no contact w/anyone.
fast forward about 11 years and one night just for kicks, I googled the way international-wham!
trancenet was still viewable, I found waydale w/ directions to Karl Kahler's book reveiw and then greasespot....I stayed awake almost all night, reading and amazed that my experience was not an isolated event after all. I kept having all these gut wretching turns, because I realized some of the whisphered stories where ture and laughed about way brain, and some of the really funny posts...Mr pawtucket it is a real service that you do provide (I do picture him as Mark Twain, whom I think is a genius)
I had this nagging doubt that maybe it was me that was such the mess not spiritual enough to "handle it" even after all the years...wondered if it was really as bad as all that, because of the fond memories of good people-yep. well the spot here helped me confirm the sanity I knew I owed.
Yes, Andrea that's how it was for me too after getting out of TWI, after always thinking it was ME......nope, IT was screwed up, more so than I even knew.
I have indeed grown fond of this and you all...but please tell me-Did you post, Rascal, while giving birth?? That is hardcore devotion of a sort I am amazed by!
Thanks out&about-it's nice to know you're not nuts...or overly paranoid.
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ex70sHouston
I got out in 79. I had done searchs for vp and the way a few times. Found no way out couple of years ago. Found GSC a few months ago.
What I have found out from this site just tells me I did the right thing early.
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Technobyte
Irony of ironies. I started lurking here after someone told me that I can't go on the internet and to especially not believe anything I hear from Waydale.
Given that my profession has A LOT to do with computers and the internet, I resented them telling me not to go there!
I couldn't find Waydale, so I did a search and found God's Royal Tapestry, Atlanta Bible Fellowship, Bibel Center, Cortright Fellowship, GSC, Living Epistles, CFF, CES, and a chitload of others. I lurked here as a guest (no handle) for a long time before I started posting. My coming here had nothing to do with the fact that I left TWI, I was leaving anyway.
:)-->
Technobyte
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lindyhopper
Glad you made it out, JT.
Glad we could help.
;)-->
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JustThinking
Me too!
Thank you. Glad you're here too!
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dmiller
Heh! I never even owned a computer until June of 2002, and didn't have internet until August of that year. Somehow, somewhere I found No Way Out. I found criminal news stories there, about folks I had known that used to be in my area, and it intrigued me. Am thinking now, that there was a link there, that led me here.
I have been out since '85, or '86 -- so neither this site (nor that one) had anything to do with my leaving. However --- all the rumors I had ever heard, all the accusations made that I wondered about, all the inconsistencies, and all the stories of "rape, pillage, and plunder" were laid out in such stark detail for me here -- it left no room for doubt as to the veracity of them.
I left back "whenever", because of the crap that was being bandied about, with *no solid evidence*. Finding GSCafe was the equivilant of having a gold deposit, backing up the dollar bills in my pocket.
Thanks Paw, and everyone else too. You all have made me realize that I did the right thing by leaving -- without having regrets.
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Steve Swenton
I got out of TWI back in 1987 while the internet was still strictly government/college only. I was on the Prodigy service until 1995 and posted on the "Religion" board often.
In 1997 I found and posted on the CES board under the name "Thumper" (long story). I happened onto Transnet's No Way Out magazine, but never posted anything there. After that I found Waydale, though I posted under a pseudoname there, I am still using it here, so I ain't tellin' - for now.
Like a couple of others have said, I was lead to GS through a link that someone posted on Waydale just about a week before it closed. I started using my pseudoname here, but started posting as me about two years later (after Paw moved here from Easyboard).
So, here I am.
:D-->
Just a thought...
Steve.
¥
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socks
I remember Trancenet, it was closed but viewable when I found it. Wrote somebody there, forget the name. Saw the acronym TWI was being used and searched for that. Got The Welders Institute, not much else. Ran in to Waydale, and so on. I don't remember what year, I think WayDale'd been up a few months before I found it.
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learning
mine is a little bit different.
I am still in as some of you know, and found GSC and NO WAY OUT some years back. I frequented them often as a lurker and used what I found to fill out my knowledge and pester the leaders. Why pester while still in? The more armed you are the better you will be in a fight. If this is truly a spiritual life then knowing "your enemy" (NOT how I think of GSC..but how they might) is to your advantage. Besides, how will I ever know what I believe if I don't doubt it some? Test it? Put myself on that ledge and see who flys or comes back?
my hope is that this comes off well and is understood.
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excathedra
it comes off just fine, learning
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outandabout
I left in 1988. POP and all that was the beginning of my exit.
Found Trancenet after we got Web TV for awhile. I posted here and there. It was a real free for all, but it was cathartic for me.
Then I went to Waydale, but don't remember how I found it. From there I went to Greasespot after Waydale was over.
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Hope R.
I was still in in 1998 when a friend who had been out of TWI for quite some time told me about the Trancechat forums. I had wanted to leave for a few years - and finding Trancechat was my "cold waters to a thirsty soul".
The first night I found it, I stayed up all night reading the archives. A lot of it was pretty rough stuff. Some people would get down-right nasty with each other. Because there was little moderation and no screen names or password protection, I could sign on as anyone I wanted - even another poster! There were a lot of problems, but it was all that was around, and it served its purpose at the time.
I started posting as "A_Friend". Then Karl K. asked me if I was a "girl" friend or a "boy" friend - so I called myself "Amie Friend", and stayed that way until the night I left TWI.
When Trancechat closed - I was almost frantic. It was my only link to ex-Way people and an incredible outlet for my "innie" frustrations. But it was only a week or two and Waydale was up and running. There was a guest book at first - and the Documents section. The forum came a bit later.
I loved the original Waydale chat room. The night we got kicked out of TWI, I went into the room and chatted under my real name - letting everyone know I was finally out!
Grease Spot, of course, was practically an extension of Waydale - Paw didn't miss a beat so there was no down-time between the sites.
I think all three sites have proven to be a haven for those of us who didn't have anyone to "talk" to who could understand our TWI involvement and the effects it had on our lives. The fact that GS is still up and running strong and that so many people lurk and post here says volumes about the need for it to continue to exist.
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grasshopper
ahhh the memories sweet sweet memories.
about 1997 or so i had been witnessing to a guy who was a real smart dude. he called me at my office and started asking me questions garnered from a website that had real long names with lots of hash marks, dot dot's and semi colons with ascii characters. very astute questions that i had no answers for. of course being the good little hitler youth that i was i brought it up with my "oberfuhrer" who said to ignore it, move on and have no further contact with this person. but i liked this guy, we had many common interests such as shooting innocent bowling pins with shotgun slugs and 306 rifles and.....
well i did obey my leader until 'bout a year later i became hfc foot- istant and happened to accidentally google or alta vista the name craig martindale. uh oh spagettios! all kinds of anti way stuff came up and after a brief perusal i ran screaming into the night
then the marty martindale thing came down and we were told to stay off the internet. i have always believed in the right to keep and bear arms, and the first ammendment and by now i had a blazing fast 56K modem and did a 'nother search on martindale which linked me to the shut down waydale and i found the very lovely greasespot cafe.
i started posting as ryan cawdor a character from some (what i thought were) very obscure male oriented action adventure novels.
I got a bit of grilling and drilling from a few of you (sudo, satori) and then i started getting some concrete answers to the living hell
that i had called home for over 20 years also known as twi. hope r and excathy and many others were so kind to me even talked with me on the phone etc 2 months after that i resigned as an hfc, stayed in for while with sporadic attendance and many confrontations and arguments with the local dick head leadership.
i told my hfc that i was no longer intersted in being involved because i felt twi was a dishonest and dangerous outfit. after citing many other concerns he turned me over to his way corpse overseer who could not handle what i had to say.
about a day later i gathered with 5 of my closest way friends and told them what i had found out and urged them to join the rebellion.
well, i lost those friends and haven't spoken with them since. they all rejected me despite years of trust and friendship
i am a happy man now, i own a house, play in an all originals band and have made friends with some of the most honest people on the face of the earth. i have a best friend and have been adopted by the most loving family north of the us/canadian border
thank you paw. none of us could have been here without your ballsy stand for the truth.
hopper
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A la prochaine
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MATILDA
I was a long, long time out of TWI before coming upon Waydale.
Like someone earlier said, the God's Royal Tapestry and Bo Reahard's site and other small sites led the way...lol. Actually, now that I think about it, it was in a post on God's Royal Tapestry that someone expressly mentioned Waydale by name, with the heavy exhortation NOT to go there.
So, I did, natch. LOL.
That was a find. Here was me,a the ultimate cyber-spazz, tapped into this website. I spent an obscene amount of time there, reading everything, everyday.
Wheras, it really really helped to fill in the blanks, connect the dots, etc., the constant Oprah-fest (and sometimes pure vitreol and bona-fide nutsitude) of early Waydale is meat for a good screenplay, in and of itself. Victoria and catmandu and a host of other sad-but-trues with any number of names and agendas lived there along with the rest of a hungry population.
Waydale chatroom was a spiritual wormhole...it WAS a real live happening...lol. Very addictive. Sheesh...babies got birthed in thare!
And socks, my little Logos friend, I remember when you first posted...you and the Zbee and many others will forever be dear to me.
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rascal
That baby will be 5 in april, believe it or not! lol
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andreatheflorist
found this last year- Been out since 1989-90. I had not tried to contact anyone, or anything related with the way-left the first husband (which was quite the sticky situation) and it was vital that he not find me...So no contact w/anyone.
fast forward about 11 years and one night just for kicks, I googled the way international-wham!
trancenet was still viewable, I found waydale w/ directions to Karl Kahler's book reveiw and then greasespot....I stayed awake almost all night, reading and amazed that my experience was not an isolated event after all. I kept having all these gut wretching turns, because I realized some of the whisphered stories where ture and laughed about way brain, and some of the really funny posts...Mr pawtucket it is a real service that you do provide (I do picture him as Mark Twain, whom I think is a genius)
I had this nagging doubt that maybe it was me that was such the mess not spiritual enough to "handle it" even after all the years...wondered if it was really as bad as all that, because of the fond memories of good people-yep. well the spot here helped me confirm the sanity I knew I owed.
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outandabout
Yes, Andrea that's how it was for me too after getting out of TWI, after always thinking it was ME......nope, IT was screwed up, more so than I even knew.
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pawtucket
Rascal,
That's right, I forgot about the chatroom and your giving birth.
We should have a thread for stories like that.
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andreatheflorist
Mr Paw & Rascal:
I have indeed grown fond of this and you all...but please tell me-Did you post, Rascal, while giving birth?? That is hardcore devotion of a sort I am amazed by!
Thanks out&about-it's nice to know you're not nuts...or overly paranoid.
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