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In Reply to: Re: Please explain what you can... posted by Uncognito on August 25, 2004 at 17:55:37:
Uncognito, you state: "Nobody, NOBODY, would be unless there was a tacit understanding of their commitment to blindly follow."
Your emphasis suggests that this was a hard a fast rule, so I'm wondering if my experience was an exception.
In 1989 I was sent to Issac Number's WS unit in Hong Kong for a few months before it closed down and moved to Switzerland. How I ended up in that WS unit actually reveals more of the distinction between leadership and rank and file members, and particularly how WS leaders could manipulate members for their own ends.
I have a vague memory of filling out a long questionaire many years before Berg showed up at the HCS and Gary recruited my wife for their team. I do remember that it was a very detailed questionaire and there were some questions about working in WS. It asked if you were interested in working for WS and if so, would you be willing to forsake your mate and/or children to do so. Of course, it was obvious to any member that if you said you were interested you would need to indicate willingness to forsake your family or
else you would never be considered for the job.
Many members thought that working in WS was the pinnacle of achievement in TF and something to aspire to. I know not everyone thought that way, but I did and so I answered yes to both questions.
Fast forward to 1989 and the HCS in Japan. I had forgotten all about the questionaire, in fact, I've only recently remembered this part of my story. But I'm sure leadership never forgot, and I now believe that they used that questionaire against me. This is conjecture on my part, but I think fairly accurate.
What I think transpired is that they had their eye on my wife because not only had she proven to be very servile and compliant under previous
selah conditions (national offices, pub units), but she was Canadian and that's where they were headed to after Japan. I, on the other hand, was not so compliant, and being under the direct observation of top leaders for a few years, I had been the recipient of many rebukes, chastenings, punishments etc. This would have been reported to Berg's team when they were recruiting my wife and would've certainly excluded me from any consideration of also joining their team, despite my Canadian passport. I have no way to verify this at the moment, but I really believe that they used those answers on my questionaire to convince my wife that I didn't care about her and was willing to forsake her to join WS, so she should too. I say this because I have a fuzzy memory of her throwing this fact at me when we were discussing Gary's conversation with her.
Once my wife said yes to their offer, they then had the problem of how to get me out of the way so I wouldn't stir up trouble. First, they insisted that we get divorced (we had been legally
married in HK). They got me out of the HCS as fast as they could and I was sent to the National Office to work on and wait for the divorce to be final. Of course, once there, all my activities were completely controlled, which was the idea. They didn't want a loose cannon screwing up their plans.
Once the divorce was final they sent me to the WS unit in HK. They had to have known that that unit was going to shut down a few months after I got there, and so it was a convenient way to temporarily get me out of the way in a different country, put me in total isolation from the rest of TF, and then when the coast was clear to "dump" me back amongst the rank and file where I belonged.
As I said, my experience might have been an exception to the general rule that WS only accepted those who committed to following blindly. But knowing how manipulative TF leadership is, I wouldn't be surprised if others have similar stories as mine.
