Eyewitnesses 1989-1992: Your Stories

[Oakspear]

Actually, "The Way Corps as enforcers" was one of the things that came about in this time frame, now that you mention it. Since most of the independent-minded, in-it-to-serve-God people had quit or were fired, those that were left in mnay cases were anxious to "keep the household pure", and identify anyone who wasn't 100% with the program.

[doojable]

Just makes me even happier that I left when I did.

In 1997 ( I know I know that's yet ANOTHER thread!) I met some folks that had just left that year. The stories I hears were horrifying! Like women were required to keep their nails manicured ( you know the whole french nail thing - YUK!)

1988 was bad enough. I'm not quite sure how anyone put up wht twi after that...

I wish I had that song, "I'm Free!" by The Who playing in the background!!!

[markomalley]

I wish I had that song, "I'm Free!" by The Who playing in the background!!!

I always thought the song "Won't Get Fooled Again" was particularly appropriate for GSC. ("Meet the new boss...same as the old boss...")

[doojable]

"I'm free

I-I'm free

and freedom tastes like reality..."

I think both are appropriate!

[WordWolf]

This was the last of the Eyewitnesses threads.  So, similar threads for years 1993 and following would be appropriate- would they be appreciated?

[chockfull]

yes as it covers crucial periods of major transition like lawsuits, pres transition, etc.

[WordWolf]

I'll start them in a few days. Maybe after that, posters who did the more casual posts in the other threads can rephrase them or repost them for the appropriate years.

[DontWorryBeHappy]

Absolutely WordWolf! This thread was really informative! I was very active at Waydale and involved much with the Allen lawsuit as a witness. I remained active with the early beginnings of the GSC, but took a hiatus from 2001-2007 to attend to the messy things of life.

 

I returned to the spot in September, 2007. On October 1st I started the IS the Crisis over thread now in the CES/STF  subforum. That's when I got to know all the cafe regulars and was often involved in the various threads, mostly in About The Way.

So, all the threads and info contained here in the GSC booths from 2001-2007 are basically new to me. That's why I really appreciate you bumping this one up WW! I think your idea of a year by year or multi-year "diary"  is excellent! And, if there was ever a perfect man for the job, it's you for this!

To me, the mission, purpose and reach if the Spot has always been the single best place anywhere to get the REAL scoop about TWIt in all its iterations. As I said somewhere before, with Charlene, Kristen, and Karl's books, and the treasure trove of information here at the Spot, we have an opportunity to once and for all just wipe out TWIt beyond its crumbling New Knoxville walls of lies, obfusfcation, and disinformation. We stand a good chance destroying their MUST precious commodity.......income! That's all they care about and it's all they understand. Peace all.

[chockfull]

10 hours ago, WordWolf said:

I'll start them in a few days. Maybe after that, posters who did the more casual posts in the other threads can rephrase them or repost them for the appropriate years.

WordWolf - after thinking about this and some of my threads, I think I will cull some posts as to particular years.    However, the thing I think is missing in the analysis of breakdown by years is that some of these threaded stories and their timelines actually take over a decade to go through with all of the tentacles attached.  

i don't think those posts or stories would be well served by breaking them down by years and putting them in multiple year bucket threads.

This is all just organizational approach.  Do I like your buckets?  Yes - very easy for people to find years involved and get to stories.  And you are definitely the man with the sk1llz for that approach.  But I don't like that I find the potential for losing context within a story split out over multiple thread buckets.

So what do I want to do?  I think I will do both - cull some individual posts that fit into year buckets, and link threads that cover multiple buckets of years.   

Thoughts?

[chockfull]

moved to 1986 - 1988 thread

Edited December 14, 2016 by chockfull

[chockfull]

Overlapping timeline - 89 - 99

 

 

[Twinky]

I'm glad somebody is FINALLY interested in hearing about this period.

When I first started posting here, I felt like a lone voice and nobody cared a whit.  Just ignored what I said.  Like it didn't matter, wasn't really an issue, or their mega-issues were more important.

And now I've forgotten most of the junk that I had to put up with.

Except for this: LCM shouted ALL THE TIME and Corps Nights were a two hour shout-fest.  What about?  Anything, really; mostly anti-homo stuff, but not exclusively.  I don't care to try to remember.  And the shoutfest was replete with the kind of words that are usually ** out.  Foul language, used many times in each sentence as both (composite) noun and verb.

Oh, and this: I was usually in disgrace, seemingly always in condemnation, and the object of several face-meltings.

 

YAH BOO SUCKS to the lot of 'em.  I learned to say NO!!!! again.  Or even, F*** OFF outa my life.

[CLOSE CALL]

and the object of several face-meltings

Being an outsider at the Rock of 89 and having not much to do but wander around I

ran into a couple of these Face Meltings by accident. What the Hell is with these folks I

was thinking at the time. One in the Way Woods and one on top of the little bridge over that creek.

( If that was called the River Jordan, was that the Bridge of Sighs? ) There was so much discontent there and

you couldn't even get the folks that you were the closest to, too tell you what was happening.

All I could get was that some fella stole a bunch of Way Material and took it to Scotland and it would

not Edify to talk about it. Well since a Wow and a Corpse guy recommended me for Staff and I was

at the time interested ( thus the name Close Call ) I thought that I should know what was wrong here.

Nope. I was not spiritually mature enough I guess. A lot of arrogance and snobbishness I witnessed.

I was even introduced to Mrs. Weirwille the first night there and she did not act very friendly either.

We were coming in from the parking area on the 1st evening and she was sitting on a Golf cart staring down at the big top.

Personally I think she was depressed and crying and was trying to maintain herself.

Back to work more another time.

 

[Grace Valerie Claire]

On 1/12/2006 at 6:27 PM, WordWolf said:

I was going to make just 1989-1990 one thread, since so many people

left in that "year".

In April 1989, after all the leadership/corps were asked to swear

an oath of allegiance to craig, a letter was sent out to EVERYONE.

That letter was identical in every state, except the names were

changed. Basically, it said that

"some leaders in your state are evil and are abusing their offices

as leaders, so we fired them. By name, they are (names)."

The irony on that is that the people abusing their offices as leaders

were the ones doing the firings.

The bland, non-specific nature of the claims, and the flat addition

of all these people-whom, locally, had EARNED respect-

made the letter highly suspicious at best. It looked like a form

letter but was claiming not to be.

(Little did I know it was the same in structure as the letter

that was presented to the bot by cg a few years earlier-

vague accusations lacking specifics.)

With that, believers in a lot of locations now had more confidence

in the people being fired than in the people doing the firing.

Some sent letters asking specifically what their leaders did. twi sent back

form letters saying, in essence, "don't worry about that-just trust us

without question."

So, about 4 out of every 5 believers walked. twi themselves made this

a LOT easier, by dismissing all the leaders at once, thus ensuring anyone

who left had a ready-to-use support structure to utilize.

I dropped in on Rock of Ages '89. My intentions were to see things

for myself, and handle things for myself. If things went well, apologies

would be issued and I'd be RIGHT THERE when they were. If things went

badly, I would use this one last chance to buy out the bookstore.

I had also attended ROA '88. Now, I had heard ROA's had been decreasing

in quality steadily starting 1985. I had heard 87 was hardly worthy to be

compared to 86. I attended ROA 88, and had a good time. I had nothing to

compare it to, but it seemed to be worth attending. Events did not seem

forced, and there were many joyful people showing spontaneous joy.

ROA '89 was far short of that. ROA '89 was like someone trying to put on

an ROA after a description of ROA '88. Everything seemed forced and

mechanical. There were errors (obvious errors) in the keynote teachings,

and EVERYTHING-I mean EVERYTHING-invoked either the current bot

or the wierwille family. And the constant "stand for the leader" thing got

SO blatant, overused and cliche, that at one point, Howard Allen himself

signalled people not to stand for him. (It seemed like he thought he'd

gotten ENOUGH forced adulation for one day or something.) In fact,

that struck me as the LEAST-rehearsed, most spontaneous gesture all

week. One consistent hallmark was that the keynote teaching was

ALWAYS preceeded by a song where we were asked to stand for the song,

and the keynote speaker came out during the song's closing while

we were still singing. The net result was them basically "tricking" people

into standing for the speaker. That struck me as plastic and rehearsed.

ROA 89, actually, is worth several more posts.

The amount of monitoring of conversations and groupthink was amazing.

I met a complete stranger who was a new student on the last night,

and explained a few things to him-not hitting him with everything.

One of the first things I said was that conversations were being listened

in on. We spoke and walked a bit, then one comment I made was rebutted

by a monitoring resident corps person-who had no idea he just proved all

my EARLIER points by showing he was listening in.

1988-1990 I was in Naples, Italy because Uncle Sam sent me there.  I am glad I was out of the country, when a lot of the s--t went down with TWI.  ROA 1987 was in my opinion, a horrible Rock.  It seemed that it was quiet, and small, and people walked around in a daze.  Plus the teachings, and music weren't all that great.  That was my last Rock-ever.

[Grace Valerie Claire]

On 12/13/2016 at 11:20 PM, WordWolf said:

This was the last of the Eyewitnesses threads.  So, similar threads for years 1993 and following would be appropriate- would they be appreciated?

For me yes!

[Grace Valerie Claire]

On 12/14/2016 at 0:28 PM, Twinky said:

I'm glad somebody is FINALLY interested in hearing about this period.

When I first started posting here, I felt like a lone voice and nobody cared a whit.  Just ignored what I said.  Like it didn't matter, wasn't really an issue, or their mega-issues were more important.

And now I've forgotten most of the junk that I had to put up with.

Except for this: LCM shouted ALL THE TIME and Corps Nights were a two hour shout-fest.  What about?  Anything, really; mostly anti-homo stuff, but not exclusively.  I don't care to try to remember.  And the shoutfest was replete with the kind of words that are usually ** out.  Foul language, used many times in each sentence as both (composite) noun and verb.

Oh, and this: I was usually in disgrace, seemingly always in condemnation, and the object of several face-meltings.

 

YAH BOO SUCKS to the lot of 'em.  I learned to say NO!!!! again.  Or even, F*** OFF outa my life.

Why??!!  I will never understand this type of behavior!!  Hell, it sounds worse than Boot Camp, and Boot Camp was horrible!!  I think I would have left.

[Twinky]

Ah, GVC, our esteemed leader was "spiritually angry" and we too had to learn what to be spiritually angry about.

What he was really angry about was nothing particularly spiritual - it was his wife and Rosalie gettin' it together in more ways than one.  Hence, no doubt, his homo rants.