Posts by TerryWalstrom

46

Season 1 Episode 1 A&E Cults and Extreme Belief (Video)

by TerryWalstrom in

https://www.aetv.com/shows/cults-and-extreme-belief/season-1it will post soon on site..

TerryWalstrom

I sometimes play chess with a fellow who's girlfriend is a JW.
I suggested he watch the A&E with her and that he gauge her honest response.
Would her sympathy be for abused children or would her automatic reflex be to
defend and deny on behalf of the abuser organization?

I also suggested a phrase to use when the time was right.
He should suggest she investigate and if she refused to check anyplace other than the official Watchtower communication lines, he should say:
"Would you ask O.J. if he is guilty and let it go at that?"
Well, apparently he pulled it off.
He called me yesterday.
"She hit the ceiling and kept demanding we watch something else. I had to to say the O.J. thing to her almost immediately."
I asked what she replied.
"Nothing. She just kind of froze and sat still through the whole thing."
I asked if she ever said a word and he told me she changed the subject.

Wow!
AT LEAST she watched. Seed planted.

How My Mind Formed, Vanished, Rebuilt

by TerryWalstrom in

jw
friends

how my mind formed, vanished, rebuilt_____.

as a kid i walked everywhere.point a to point b, one step at a time.. the body is engaged and the mind is free.free to think.i took my "mind" with me on my walk as a 'companion’ coordinating the physical exertion with the mental exertion.. fresh air, the scent of grass with frying eggs and bacon mixed in the air.a thousand natural sounds of life became stimulus---the actual world.

reality.. i thought up games and challenges.i loved tongue twisters such as:"the silent sea ceaseth, and thus sufficeth us.

TerryWalstrom

HOW MY MIND FORMED, VANISHED, REBUILT
_____

As a kid I walked everywhere.
Point A to point B, one step at a time.

The body is engaged and the mind is free.
FREE TO THINK.
I took my "mind" with me on my walk as a 'companion’ coordinating the physical exertion with the mental exertion.

Fresh air, the scent of grass with frying eggs and bacon mixed in the air.
A thousand natural sounds of life became stimulus---the actual world. Reality.

I thought up games and challenges.
I loved tongue twisters such as:
"The Silent Sea ceaseth, and thus sufficeth us."
Or, "The sixth Sheik's sixth sheep is sick."
"Rubber baby buggy bumper."
If I could enunciate precisely while speaking quickly I could articulate confidently.

I took 3X5 cards with historical dates and figures. I memorized them as I walked along.
Muhammed: 570-632 A.D
Battle of Thermopylae: 480 B.C.
Sinking of Titanic: 1912 and so on.
A Sense of History was developing. Who and what came first, next, and afterward.

On my 3X5 cards I printed Vocabulary Words.
16 per day.
EFFULGENT
BELLICOSE
MAUDLIN
Etc. I learned the Latin and Greek root words as hints.

A mail order memory course enabled me to create long lists in my head which could remain firmly in place.
I recited long passages of Poetry.

Then, a kind of Zen exercise of SIMPLY EXISTING without thinking.
It is the ON/OFF switch. It came in handy later on.
"MIND" as a machine, a tool, a gizmo I needed to learn how to operate...self-operate...skillfully.

I was tall and thin and easily targeted by bullies at school.
I couldn't understand my exclusion and it hurt me deeply. I sought comfort and refuge on my INTERIOR.
As an only child I discovered how to self-entertain.
All I need is me.
But I grew lonely.
I met a Friend who was in a religious cult. How do you suppose this will impact my MIND?

In Jehovah's Witnesses, there was a place for my MIND.
All I had to do was apply my efforts and I'd be on the side of Goodness and Rightness!

I made friends. I received direction on what was “important” and how to meet strangers and shake hands and look people in the eyes.
I learned how to organize sermons and stand before a crowd and speak persuasively.
I was encouraged to SACRIFICE my youth to my Gawd.

I went to prison ....voluntarily...to please my Deity and "Christian family".

What is a crucible? It is a place to be broken--UNmade--and reformed.
I was pounded into tiny pieces and intermixed with strangeness, vileness, and pain.
I came out the other side shattered on the inside...but CALM and COMPOSED on the surface.

The Old Me was buried without a funeral. A New me arose.

I did as I was told, worked hard at it. Learned doctrine. Kept track of hours spent preaching, reciting god-words to strangers.
I longed to be NORMAL. What did NORMAL people do?
I got married, fathered children, worked at meaningless jobs.

And then...it all fermented.

I exploded into dust. I came apart. The Old Me and the New Me unshackled.
I WANTED MY MIND BACK.
I planned the escape carefully.

I moved my family far, far away from cult influences.
I secured a job--a creative career... in Art.
I made new friends...(GENUINE FRIENDS) and started life all over again.

Trial and Error. Many mistakes. Much pain.
WHY do we exist? (Fill in your new answer)
WHAT is my purpose? (Fill in your new answer)

Listening is not the same as hearing.
Seeing is not the same as observing.
Blurting is not the same as articulating.

How I formed my mind was by learning to feed it, cultivate it as one cultivates a garden.
Then I surrendered it. Lost. Got it back again.

AM I THE SAME BOY who walked and smelled flowers and bacon?
Am I less? More?

Think of A WALL made of BRICKS. If we replace one brick at a time until none of the old bricks remain--is it THE SAME WALL?

In our body and brain, we replace our constituent parts each year. Our "bricks" aren't the same.

This I what I believe. We B-E-C-O-M-E who we are. Never the same moment to moment.
Consciousness is like the weather; wafts of winds,in constant flux and subject to every distant influence no matter how small.
MIND is a peculiar illusion we bag and tag and label.

WE CANNOT understand or know who we really are because we are changing while insisting we’re the same.
Confusing? Yeah. No choice but to “Suck it up and deal.”
My opinion?
I am my writing. I'm in my children. I'm in my Art.
What we create and leave behind is ultimately who we are.
These words are my thoughts.
When I die, if the words exist anyplace at all--then I AM THERE.
Now, go back to your day and it’s thousands of little wafts.
Become, become, become who you are.
Above all: THINK!

________

76

Posters You Miss

by minimus in

jw
friends

anyone that you miss from this site, dead or alive??.

i miss farkel, blondie and a host of others!.

TerryWalstrom

Alan F (Alan Feuerbacher) retired to Colorado and continues to write.
An inactive activist, he's been toying with the writing of either a long article or a book on the topic of 607 BC as what might be construed as an "update" of Carl Olof Jonsson's opus. Barbara Anderson has invited him more than once to publish the material amassed so far. It would appear he's not in any hurry to complete the research and writing at this point.

46

Season 1 Episode 1 A&E Cults and Extreme Belief (Video)

by TerryWalstrom in

https://www.aetv.com/shows/cults-and-extreme-belief/season-1it will post soon on site..

TerryWalstrom

Without proper permission to show a non-public person's identity, a legal problem could arise. (Not that the Watchtower would ever sink so low...:)

I think scratching out the faces created a disturbing sensibility, like a Japanese horror movie.

10

News from Australia: Tasmania Anglicans to sell property for redress

by AndersonsInfo in

http://www.news.com.au/national/breaking-news/tas-anglicans-to-sell-property-for-redress/news-story/f56eb0caabc16212229c3b0d6d940e3c.

tas anglicans to sell property for redress.

survivors of child sexual abuse in tasmania will get a payout after the anglican diocese announced the sale of more than 120 churches, halls and houses.. kaitlyn offer - australian associated press april 22, 2018 2:30pm.

TerryWalstrom

The parishioners who DONATED the land and property to the church are not exactly thrilled at this. The intention of a donor is thwarted by converting to cash.
Not all the money will be used for victims of abuse either. The donated land is a kind of get-of-trouble-easy solution if you stop and think about the details.

The Watchtower will go down with the ship before they'll stop fighting. Why? Because their Self-Belief is absolute.

49

Favourite Quirky / Low Budget / Non-Mainstream Movies

by Simon in

so the recent topic about film franchises got me thinking.

sure, we all love the big budget, mainstream releases that are so successful they spawn never-ending (it sometimes seems) sequels.

we could watch marvel and star-wars movies for the rest of our lives (and we might just ...).. but y'know what i love?

TerryWalstrom

Muscle Shoals is awesome!

49

Favourite Quirky / Low Budget / Non-Mainstream Movies

by Simon in

so the recent topic about film franchises got me thinking.

sure, we all love the big budget, mainstream releases that are so successful they spawn never-ending (it sometimes seems) sequels.

we could watch marvel and star-wars movies for the rest of our lives (and we might just ...).. but y'know what i love?

TerryWalstrom

I hesitate to recommend my favorite movie of all time because it is really, really, really weird, bizarre, and esoteric.

It is written and directed by Charlie Kaufman.
Kaufman is a genius at off-beat, meta-lunatic story lines, a surreal settings.

He wrote such films as:
BEING JOHN MALKOVICH
ETERNAL SUNSHINE of the SPOTLESS MIND.
_____
Unless you love (not "like") the above films--you shouldn't tackle the one I'm about to suggest.
The lead actor is Philip Seymore Hoffman.
Hoffman is Caden Cotard. Cotard is a theater director who wins a MacArthur genius grant. Instead of making his life easier, the money gives him the opportunity to indulge his neurosis. Besides being a hypochondriac, he's obsessed by the notion of re-creating in a giant warehouse (drum roll please.........) New York City in miniature and depicting not only everybody he knows, but everybody else.
I know, I know--that doesn't sound exciting. But "weird" is a fascinating plunge into the Alice in Wonderland rabbit hole of the lunatic genius imagination of Charlie Kaufman.
I will attach a video of just one scene.
One of Cotard's love interests is in love with a house she's always had her eye on.
It is perpetually burning.
The scene (in context of watching the movie) gave me chill bumps (a thrill) for the monumental abstraction and insanity of its daring to be normal.
Without context, it will probably leave you scratching your head and wondering if I should be locked up someplace secure for suggesting the movie.
_____
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFwS_Dqd-IU

____

SYNECDOCHE NEW YORK is the title.

(Note: what does the word mean? It is a figure of speech in which part of something ----Cotard's play about everybody in New York-- represents the whole.)

I doubt one person in a thousand can "get" the film and love it as much as I do.
You have to have a kink in your DNA and a twist to the brain pan.
I think it is simply a brilliant masterpiece.

49

Favourite Quirky / Low Budget / Non-Mainstream Movies

by Simon in

so the recent topic about film franchises got me thinking.

sure, we all love the big budget, mainstream releases that are so successful they spawn never-ending (it sometimes seems) sequels.

we could watch marvel and star-wars movies for the rest of our lives (and we might just ...).. but y'know what i love?

TerryWalstrom

Real kick-ass movie: EQUILIBRIUM
Dystopian future not unlike Brave New World (Aldous Huxley) and 1984 (G. Orwell)
in which ~~Batman~~, I mean, Christian Bale is an enforcer of a tyrannical government police force in an oppressive future where all forms of feeling are illegal. (Bale) John Preston a man in charge of enforcing the law, stops taking his tranquilizers and has an aesthetic awakening to the beauty of art, music, and individualism.
This clip will give you a hint of how awesome this movie is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U02E2sjwlLM
________________________

Next movie: CREEP

This is a no-budget movie which works like crazy. Why? The story is splendidly contrived and acted by a cast of 2 people.
When a videographer answers a Craigslist ad for a one-day job in a remote mountain town, to video the last messages of a dying man, he finds his client is not at all what he initially seems.
This movie really frightened me and I'm a big boy all growed up.
Yes, there is a sequel, CREEP2
_____

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gp7tBypjwDo

46

Season 1 Episode 1 A&E Cults and Extreme Belief (Video)

by TerryWalstrom in

https://www.aetv.com/shows/cults-and-extreme-belief/season-1it will post soon on site..

TerryWalstrom

Michael Moore set the standard of the "little" guy against the corporate giant.
This is the keystone documentary approach when a powerless person succumbs to undue pressure by bureaucrats. The GB before their TV career were at least mystical and mysterious and a certain cachet and rubric of charisma prevailed. However, in this instance, the WORLD HEADQUARTERS and "nobody home" paints a stark and eerie picture of the monster under the bed.

46

Season 1 Episode 1 A&E Cults and Extreme Belief (Video)

by TerryWalstrom in

https://www.aetv.com/shows/cults-and-extreme-belief/season-1it will post soon on site..

TerryWalstrom

I was finally able to penetrate the firewall of A&E and watch
the documentary presentation of CULTS & EXTREME belief.

From the text intro:
"Former Jehovah’s Witness Romy Maple–a survivor of child sexual abuse–embarks on a journey to uncover why her pleas for justice were systematically ignored by top members of the organization."
______

First off, this production is first rate as to sound, story, photography, lighting, hosting, and handling of sensitive materials.
Let's face it, there are more ways to go wrong or too far or not far enough in an expose' and the unfamiliarity of a densely hermetic organization over a hundred years old is a tough nut to crack. Simple is best.

Kudos are due Barbara Anderson! Barbara was a writer and researcher at Watchtower headquarters...until....(no spoilers...yet.)

Had she made one false move this program would have been easy to dismiss. The burden was on her shoulders to be clear, concise, empathetic, neutral in tone and non-histrionic. She passed with flying colors!

Barbara is saved for the latter half of the presentation as a bridge or link to the interior workings at the hive central headquarters.
The fact that Barbara was not kicked out of headquarters is important. She left with the horrific discoveries uncovered in her proper job as researcher and writer with access to history and documentation.

Child abuse cover-up popped the cork and she was outta-there post-haste!
Thank you, Barbara for opening up your private home to TV crews and to the invasion that entails as well as the unpaid hours devoted to making certain the story came across with i's dotted and t's crossed properly.

The end of the program was rather creepy in my eyes and I'll tell you why.

The victim traveled to the new headquarters in Warwick.
The car trip with a very nervous grown-up abuse victim agonizing over her decision to disconnect formally and face to face (if possible) with the leaders of the cult spoke volumes. The location really felt like an isolated bunker not unlike the creepy David Koresh compound in Waco, Texas!

The man-behind-the-glass was the cherry on top with his impersonal paid-to-lie conversation and abrupt dismissal of the obviously distressed lady standing on the other side of his cage.
She is directed to a big electronic fence and told someone would come down to talk to her.
What follows was a tone not unlike Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
A truck appears after an uncomfortable wait and parks with engine running on the other side of the fence (which never opened). Not a soul got out to walk down for a conversation. The "standoff" (again a Waco flash in my mind) continued for 40 minutes. It was Psych-out pure and simple.
I'd bet a dozen donuts the goons in the truck had binoculars and were frozen in place by the sight of video cameras in the lady's vehicle.

Back to the glass window.
She is upset. The JW inside is squirmy and simply wants her gone as fast as possible. This is way above his pay grade. (Not that I think he's paid.)
He half-opens the security door and snatches her Letter of resignation as a JW and quite rudely (I thought) dashed back inside like a genuine gutless character.

A dyed-in-the-wool Apostate JW activist will complain there were missed opportunities. Yes, of course.
However, while agreeing there are a great many levels and depths of complaint yet untouched in this presentation--the simplicity of the story is impactful in a way that a more dense and polemical slant would not have done.

I'm guessing this A&E JW topic is deliberately simple because a more profound forensic investigation is soon to appear with the Leah Remini series (formerly Scientology exposed.)

I've give this a gleaming B+ mostly thanks to Barbara Anderson.