(2021 Update: Both videos have since disappeared. I worked on World Awareness’ for its second year. I’ll probably make an update post to supplement this one, but it will be primarily based off my experience. In the meantime, read Erin’s story as she was also part of the planning committee.)
“World Awareness” is one of the newer Life Transforming Events (LTE) at the Honor Academy. Here is the trailer for it. (Caution: disturbing Holocaust, war and KKK imagery)
And here’s actual footage from either this event or a similar one:
20 comments:
I think the video on the bottom is actually from the Unreached People Group LTE cuz I think I remember that girl, lol. also they did away with people hold bricks over the heads a couple years ago I think because they were afraid of people dropping them on their heads, now they just have to hold their arms out to the sides. crazy…
October 11, 2010 7:50 AM
Maurice Moss said…
World Awareness LTE is bad news. I never liked it, even while I was there. Shooting interns with paintball guns without masks? Mass Lord-of-the-Flies chaos? Non-optional? This was making us more spiritual because we were being persecuted? Barf.
The YouTube footage is from UPG 2006 (I know the girl being tortured). The torture in World Awareness is similar, I think. However, in World Awareness, you can either be tortured in the jail (like above) or work in work camps where they make you do mindless stuff all the time.
October 11, 2010 8:58 AM
Cassie said…
There is NO way these kids come out of this without some serious psychological trauma. And let me guess, TM has a counseling “tent” set up? I’m sure there’s some fabulous reasoning for why this LTE takes place, but seems to me that it’s a bit overdone.
October 11, 2010 9:21 AM
Shiloh said…
Can I say I couldn’t sleep for like an hour after I watched the video for the first time?!
If anyone’s got some insight as to what the hell this is really about… I’d appreciate the knowledge.
This is freaking insane.
October 11, 2010 10:06 AM
heartsfire said…
I think this is just scary as to what they are doing with this lte. It really reminds me of the prison experiment with just about as much initial monitoring as the original Prison experiment. I have to wonder if the “facilitators” are required to go through any psychological testing and Knowledge classes so that they are at least sub-consciously aware not to take it overboard. I seriously doubt they do being that usually the facilitators are nothing more than GI’s and former interns that went through it last year and go through a “training night”. In some ways this makes me worry more than ESOAL. There doesn’t seem to be an Opt. out either before or during this LTE.
October 11, 2010 10:26 AM
Shiloh said…
I did some effed up things while facilitating that lte. I really do wonder now (cause I never really thought about it before.) if it is like the prison experiment. I know I went crazy during that lte as a facilitator. I’m ashamed to say it now, but my heart was ice cold and black as coal.
Why!?
Crap. Why.
October 11, 2010 11:33 AM
Brian Aldridge said…
This was not happening during my years at TMM. This is kinda sick. Who thinks up this garbage?
October 11, 2010 2:33 PM
Drea Legare Saunders said…
Brian – You hit the nail on the head. It’s sick. And it’s garbage.
I can’t get over that somehow this is part of growing people to serve in Christian ministry.
October 11, 2010 3:41 PM
Eric said…
Is it about making people believe in Satan? If so, then it works. It certainly convinces me that the Devil is not only real, he’s in charge at Honor Academy.
They’re not training people to go through torture– they’re training people to torture. Just exactly the way that Jesus didn’t. And who’s on the opposite side of Jesus, again?
(However, the production values of the video are frankly awful.)
Shiloh– I think the hell is exactly what this is really about.
October 11, 2010 4:59 PM
Kirkion said…
Isn’t it interesting how people who set out to do what only the Holy Spirit can do end up walking down the road paved with good intentions.
October 11, 2010 6:29 PM
Anonymous said…
Cult Cult Cult CUlt CUlt CUlt Cult Cult Cult Cult CUlt CUlt CUlt Cult Cult Cult Cult CUlt CUlt CUlt Cult Cult Cult Cult CUlt CUlt CUlt Cult Cult Cult Cult CUlt CUlt CUlt Cult Cult Cult Cult CUlt CUlt CUlt Cult Cult Cult Cult CUlt CUlt CUlt Cult
October 11, 2010 9:31 PM
KatieNap said…
I feel traumatized just watching the video. I don’t care if they’re pretending, that seriously would have messed me up if I’d had to go through it. I was always glad I missed the end times simulation bc of swat, I am even happier this craziness hadn’t been thought up yet. I agree with everyone who pointed out that it seems to have the opposite effect of it’s intent. It is disrespectful and diminishing and makes me sad.
October 12, 2010 12:39 PM
squeakycheez07 said…
Thankfully I have never done this LTE. I always found myself off campus for an ATF both years it was conducted. My year was the first year they did it and i heard it was really bad and poorly organized.
October 13, 2010 8:31 AM
Hitchcockhill said…
Maybe the Honor Academy should take 33 interns at a time and bury them in the backforty for 69 days. Then on the 70th day they can be released via a capsule. Imagine all the lessons they will have learned.
October 13, 2010 1:08 PM
Anonymous said…
plus, then the interns would be ready if they were ever actually buried alive in a box.
October 13, 2010 1:15 PM
Renae said…
If they’re afraid of being buried alive in a box, they should just STOP IT.
JUST STOP IT.
October 13, 2010 5:47 PM
Anonymous said…
What!!???? Seriously? What are they thinking? So glad I did HA in 98, it wasn’t nearly as weird back then.
October 13, 2010 7:01 PM
Curious George said…
And to think that this is called World Awareness. Goes to show how skewed TM’s views on reality really are. Sad to watch.
October 15, 2010 12:37 AM
ShadowVoice said…
This reminds me of a retreat someone told me about from ages ago (well, I was 10 years ago so it had to be from before that)… I think it was called the Revelation Retreat or something like that, but no one seems to know anything about it anymore
October 30, 2010 12:54 PM
h. said…
i could be wrong…someone from my year[s] maybe will be able to correct me or give some more information?
but i vaguely remember this retreat coming about because there was a GI track [GIIET? maybe? someting] that received an assignment in which they had to build and then execute an LTE. I wasn’t on campus for the first year of this…I was at an ATF. I remember hearing about how poorly organized it was, and I think the GIs were going crazy trying to pull this thing off–I remember hearing stories about how ridiculously the whole thing was handled [staff members giving them incredible amounts of responsibility, leaving them alone and not helping them with any of it, and then getting mad when things weren’t done]. If I’m remembering correctly [and I admit to potentially being wrong]…this whole LTE was the brainchild of overworked, stressed out GIs.
…and the rest is history
October 31, 2010 7:05 PM
Pingback: Conspiracies, Persecutions and Catastrophes, Oh My! – Recovering Alumni