One of the ways that a cult draws people in is for whatever their teachings are to make some kind of sense, at least the things that new people are being exposed to. A second method is to cultivate a sense of community, a sense of belonging, that you are engaged in something greater than yourself.
I completed the Power for Abundant Living (PFAL) class on March 31, 1978. During the class I became aware that the Bible study at Tom and Joe's apartment was not the only one in the area, but was still unaware of the extent of The Way, or even that The Way was an organization. From April through July of 1978 I attended Bible studies, "twigs" in Way parlance, sporadically. However, in August of that year I ended up going to rural Ohio to attend the "Rock of Ages" annual festival.
In 1969, fresh from expanding his reach by recording his PFAL class and co-opting groups of "Jesus People" hippies on both coasts, Way founder Victor Paul (VP) Wierwille formed what he called "The Way Corps", ostensibly a leadership training program. After a false start, what eventually became the First Way Corps group was assembled in August of 1970 for a two year stint at Wierwille's farm, grandiosely dubbed "International Headquarters". Around this time, a group of PFAL graduates, led by Donnie Fugit, a charismatic evangelistic type, participated in what later became the Word Over the World (WOW) Ambassador program. Up until this point expansion was more or less organic. People who had taken the PFAL class told their friends and family, and if enough were interested, then "International Headquarters" would mail out some cassette tapes (or videotapes if the potential group was large enough). Young "believers" often recruited for PFAL classes at their college campuses and several colleges became Way hotspots. The pilot WOW program would take this beyond "witnessing" in one's everyday life to a targeted missionary-like program where the primary purpose of the "WOWs" would be to "witness" and run PFAL classes.
Previous to this, The Way had been conducting "summer schools", where interested people could come to attend workshops and classes. At the end of the summer, usually in early August, before the "kids" had to return to school, there would be a weekend music festival send-off. In August 1971, at this music festival, called "The Return of the Rock of Ages", Wierwille announced the formation of the Word Over the World Ambassador program and invited anyone interested to come back in a month or so in order to receive their assignments. The first wave of WOWs would return to Ohio in one year and a second wave sent out in August 1972. Hence the Way "ministry year" would begin and end in August at the "Rock of Ages". Every August, at subsequent "Rock of Ages" festivals, a new group of WOW Ambassadors would be sent out, the previous year's group would be welcomed "home" and a new batch of Way Corps would start their training. Each year there would be more WOWs commissioned, there would be more Way Corps starting their training, and more attendees at "The Rock" until until in 1978, my first year, there were around 20,000 people from all over the world.
When I first agreed to attend The Rock in 1978, I had no idea what I was getting into. I just thought a road trip would be a cool thing to do. I was living with my parents and was between jobs, so a week in Ohio didn't really interfere with anything. I was recruited to drive a woman and her three children from New York to Ohio. She and her husband (who was already in Ohio for something called The Advanced Class) and kids were going to be WOWs that year. Joe (of Joe and Tom, whose apartment I originally attended Bible studies at) would be providing a hotel room for me to stay in during the week. We left New York in the late morning and after driving all day and into the night, arrived at a huge parking lot in the midst of Ohio farmland. I slept in the car. When I woke in the morning I was surrounded by thousands of Way people, greeting each other with variations of "God bless you". There were people pitching tents, families in RVs and believers driving in every day from area hotels. People were polite, people cared for each other, there was a distinct lack of chaos, trash was picked up, food was abundant and it was like it was one, big, happy family. While tiny compared to the half-a-million-strong Woodstock almost a decade earlier, you got the feeling that this group would be just as loving, just as organized, if there was half a million people.
The six days that I spent there got me one giant step toward getting entangled in a cult.
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