HOPE EVERYBODY IS OKAY
No one has posted for a couple of weeks. I was reading unveiled mysteries by godfre ray king which is guy ballard's pen name.Guy Ballard is the founder of the I AM Activivty which was founded back in the 1930's and is part of the Saint Germain Foundation.You see Guy Ballard is the one who says he was visited by Saint Germain on Mt Shasta.Unveiled Mysteries is Ballard's first book about his encounters with Saint Germain.Just by reading the books if one was to let their imagination take over completely they could be manipulated into believing what is said in the book.The book is obviously completely fictional but very mystical.The books are all teachings for students of the I AM Activity.At one point in the late 1930's there were over 1 million members of this new age theosophical group.Guy Ballard studied the works of Madame Blavatsky who is said to be the founder of the new age movement as it is known.The I AM Activity and Germain Foundations teachings are a good portion of the ideoligy which is taught in mastery training at Impact.Theosophy is a religous belief and therefore it is a religion and therefore Impact is teaching a religion which they say they are not.Theosophy has been around since the 1800's and before but in doing research it appears like a good portion of the main characters were charlatans,tricksters,con men,story tellers and powerful manipulators who mesmerized their listeners into believing what they were being told no matter how bizarre.You know before I went to Impact I knew nothing of all this and now I know quite alot. Sometimes I wish I never ever even heard of impact because it really does consume my every day and most of my thoughts But I know deep down inside me I was suppose to go so I could help others realize what Impact really is so maybe they won't go and sooner or later with my efforts and others efforts Impact won't exist.Anyway the I AM Actvity was a full blown cult with it's members being manipulated and mesmerized and told stories by very charasmatic and controlling people and Impact is the same way only I think Impact is far more advanced in it's methods but the teachings in the end are all the same.There are a lot of people at impact that I really care about and I think about them everyday and I pray for them every night.Man how I wished Impact was for real and they really wanted to help people become happier and more successful and they did it without the brainwashing,deception and the new age ideoligy.I tell you what walk up to 50 people on the street and ask them what new age is and I'll bet you very few can even come close.Do this! Ask Impacters to tell you about theosophy and I bet very few can or are even familiar with the word.I wasn't.All this is part of why they want you to get out of your head so you don't use the left side of your brain which is where your critical thinking comes from.I'm out for now I hope to see some posts I look every day. I don't go to church but I pray every night for everybody at impact and hope someday they wake up and see what is really going on.

I have been reading this thread over the past couple of weeks just kind of phantoming the message board.

I have a question that I havent found in the text (I may be mistaken or missed it) What are the "lifeboat drills" or whatever they're called. There hasnt been a description of what actually occurs as far as I have seen (I did skim so sorry if I missed it)

My Fiance's sisters friends are impact trainees. the husband has gone through tit1 and she was badgered by him to go to quest, and now she has said she's going to summit because she feels like she could have skipped quest training.

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nottheenemy
I have been reading this thread over the past couple of weeks just kind of phantoming the message board.

I have a question that I havent found in the text (I may be mistaken or missed it) What are the "lifeboat drills" or whatever they're called. There hasnt been a description of what actually occurs as far as I have seen (I did skim so sorry if I missed it)

My Fiance's sisters friends are impact trainees. the husband has gone through tit1 and she was badgered by him to go to quest, and now she has said she's going to summit because she feels like she could have skipped quest training.

Here's a summary that I found on another site. It matches up with Impact:

Lifeboat Process – Participants are asked to close their eyes while the trainer guides them with a story about how they are all passengers on a sinking ship in shark-infested waters. The Lifeboat will only hold 5 people. Each participant is given a few minutes to stand in front of the group and explain why they should be chosen to be saved. After this, sticks are given out to the participants and they are to vote by giving sticks to the other people they think are worthy of being saved. Those who give away all their sticks are called "suicides" and berated by the trainer. After voting is complete the 5 who are saved sit in 5 chairs set up to be the Lifeboat. The ones not chosen are to each give last messages that they would like to have relayed to their love ones then they are guided through a drowning visualization and devoured by sharks.

Here the forty participants were the only passengers on a boat that was sinking. The one lifeboat would only hold five passengers. Which five of the forty were to be saved? For a couple of hours, we were allowed to thrash it out amongst ourselves, and decided to draw lots.

Then we did it the trainers' way. This involved having five "live" votes. Each participant went around a circle consisting of all the other participants, looked each participant in the eyes, and saying either, "You live" or "You die." Nothing else. This meant you had to look at least thirty-five people in the eye and say, "You die." It also meant that a significant number of the forty were likely to look you in the eye and say, "You die." A favorite trainer question: "Did you save a `live' vote for yourself?" Those who failed to were "processed" by a trainer until they wished the boat would hurry up and sink so they could drown and get it all over with. When done with this "You die" voting process, the five people who were chosen to live sit in five chairs set up as the lifeboat, and the rest of the people, seated on the floor, go through a long, grisly guided meditation in which they drown. As they die, they lie back, and are dead. (Peter McWilliams – Insight Advanced)

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Both my experiences about lifeboat had the participants share what they would do in the situations. Many of the people stood and said that they would take their chances and let someone else go in their place. Someone younger, or with kids.

The lights are dropped down very, very low (maybe 75%) and everyone stands in a circle. A staff member will take a person around the circle and make sure that the person choosing (whether or not someone in the circle lives or dies) that they look the person in the eye while they vote and they say loud and clear either 'YOU GO' or 'YOU DON'T GO'. The person choosing has 4 popsicle sticks (we each had 3 in the 14 participant session) if they choose someone to GO, then they give the person a popsicle stick, if the person gets a popsicle stick - they are to yell out very, very, loud so everyone in the room knows - 'JIM GOES!" The person goes all the way around the room and votes on everyone, when they get back to their place in line they must the state whether or not they will go on the lifeboat. If they saved themselves a popsicle stick they yell 'JOHN GOES' if they didn't save themselves a popsicle stick they must yell 'JOHN DOESN'T GO'

The staff, during this time is either taking a person around the circle or standing behind the circle and making comments - 'It is so easy to kill this person off' 'Look how selfish you are that you are going to take this mother from her children' 'This person has barely had time to live and you have lived for so long, now you are just going to kill them' 'This persons life is already a tragedy, let's just add to her families grief and kill her off too.' 'Why would you save this person, all he did was father 3 children and leave them alone with only a single mom to take care of them' 'Why save this person, they would kill you off if you had the chance' The staff has been keeping mental notes about each person and knows what buttons to push - there is very much crying and emotion. It is very stressful. The one thing that is a fact, is that you don't win no matter what your choose for yourself or others. There is music playing through out the process - I can't recall what it was - I think that Desperado was one of the songs and there were maybe two others that they continued to loop.

During the 14 participant session - one person went all the way around the room and would not vote - he threw his sticks on the floor and said he refused to be a part of the decision on who lived and who didn't - he was really admonished for this. The trainer screamed at him 'You fucking arrogant asshole' who do you think you are that you can just ......I don't recall the argument she used. He got reamed for about 15 minutes, it was very very harsh. It was brought up several times later in the workshop as an example of how arrogant and self centered we all are.

This was a very emotional process. I still have people asking me why I said certain things (when I was staffing) that were really painful to them during that process. And I only know that I was coached to say the thing that would create the biggest reaction, I feel sad and sick about it, but I guess based on results that I did a very good job.

---

In another exercise, everyone was given five Straws to distribute to people they thought worthy of being "saved" on a lifeboat. The five with the most straws would "survive." Karen made it aboard the lifeboat, only to be ridiculed by the seminar leader for not having saved a straw for herself. My God, she thought. There's no winning here. (Dirk Mathison – White Collar Cults)

At the end John Denver's song "I Want to Live" is played. (I want to live, I want to grow, I want to see, I want to know, I want to share what I can give...)

Lifeboat,
It was a very intense experience women and men were crying and sobbing as it was very emotional.I gave my sticks to the first five women I came to who were all crying and as I continued around the circle said I was sorry but I already gave away all my sticks.Two of those sticks were given to me by people thinking I should have a seat on the lifeboat .After all the stick giving and taking was over the staff members came by counting everyones sticks I gave away all my sticks and was yelled at and called stupid for wasting the sticks that someone had given me.It was all very traumatic as everyone was extremely tired and confused.In my group all the five seats were filled by women and they all sat in the middle back to back facing the outer circle of those who don't go and all these women were crying and were extremely emotional.Then we were told to lay on our backs and close our eyes the room was very dark.We were told to invision our own death as we were guided through with a trancing story about all our deaths and even through to a viewing in your casket and the funeral procession and even laying there in your casket as they are filling up the hole with dirt and as all your famliy leaves and there you are alone in the ground.It was all very stressful and you din't know what was coming next and it is all a process of impact getting control of peoples emotions and getting them to surrender and making them believe that their lives suck and by surrendering and giving all your trust to impact your life will be enlightened beyond your belief.It's all about manipulation and mind control that;s why they want you to get out of your head and come from your heart so they can get rid of your critical thinking and gain control over you and get you to pay alot of money and go to the next level and as the training gets deeper and deeper into new age and theosophy principles.

Nottheenemy,
Your friend saying she is going to summit and saying she could have skipped quest is a pretty strong indicator that she has been influenced by the persuasion in quest. They make it seem like it is spontaneous but in reality the whole process is done in steps and impact knows exactly what is going to happen and how to deal with each situation while the whole time they are manipulating people slowly but surely so they will go to the extremes to pay for the next training and also convince family and friends to come.

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NOTImpacted
First of all, I'd like to thank everyone who has posted on this site. I have spent the last week pouring over all 62 pages and have learned more in one week than I have in the 4 or 5 years I've been dealing with this insidious cult called Impact. As my name implies, I have NOT attended Impact, but I am trying to deal with the effects of my ENIRE FAMILY, (minus one brother) who has and are still throwing away A LOT of their hard earned money, and turning their minds over to the Bergers (aka Jim and Tammy Faye Baker) :evil:

It all started in 2003 when my brothers wife went thru Quest, Summit and Lift-Off. She changed drastically. (I believe my brothers words were, "She is on a higher plane"). So, my brother being the good supportive husband that he is, decided in order to keep his marriage together he had better do it too. Subsequently, he got my mom, three more brothers (and a sister-in-law), and eventually my sister and her husband. Both sisters-in-law have each gotten their parents to go through it, in fact there will be a graduation that I WILL NOT BE ATTENDING this Saturday. When this nightmare ends, I will have 2 brothers, 2 sisters-in-law, a brother-in-law and my only sister graduate as TIT3'ers, as I believe they are referred to.

This leaves my younger brother and I complete strangers to the rest of what was once was a pretty tight-knit family. I have a husband and three children; my brother has one child and a very special girlfriend. We have essentially been replaced by their "Impact family". He and I have been beside ourselves for years, both knowing in our guts that this is wrong. They have tried, through various means, to get us to join up, but thankfully, THANFULLY, neither of us have succombed. In fact, if I knew then what I know now, I would have begged them to stop. But I feel now, that they have reached the point of no return. I know some of you, Ex and Former specifically, made it all the way through TIT3 and are recovering (I'm so proud of you both!!!), but I am under the impression that you are very much in the minority. It's to the point that we cannot relate, on any level, to any of them. We both did our part to support them in the beginning by attending graduations, etc. (which, by the way, made me literally naseous..) but as time has passed, we have both felt more and more like this is a VERY bad situation and one that we can no longer support.

At first when I came to this site, I merely wanted to see how much information I could gather. My brother had mentioned Impact to someone at work who found this site and I haven't been able to stay away since. Subsequently, he and I are now grappling with the fact that we can no longer be silent. We feel that since we've already been outcast, we don't have much to lose by letting them know how we feel, by now using words instead of actions. I have so much more to say about this, and soooo many questions, but I'd like to get a perspective on what, if anything, can be said at this point to the TIT 3'ers that would be effective. Any insight would be much appreciated!

I can't believe it's been a year since I posted.. I come back here every so often to see what's being said and to see how many more people have been so negatively affected by this poison. Nothing has changed with my family situation except that they are in deeper than ever. My little brother and his wife just got back from Mt. Shasta over the weekend and I am really trying to find out WHAT GOES ON THERE???? I searched the site and it doesn't seem like anyone who has been there has posted anything about it, or perhaps I'm just not seeing it. I'm beside myself more than ever. I still, after all this time, can't believe what has happened to these intelligent people who are my flesh and blood. I will say that my sister and her husband, for some reason, have been estranged in some way by the Bergers. I don't know the details.. all I heard was that they had started the TIT series and for some reason were kicked out, I believe because they were unable to afford a retreat, or couldn't attend a retreat. Is that possible? Could they be kicked our or suspended for not attending a "mandatory" something-or-other? Also, if anyone has information regarding what significance Mt. Shasta holds, I would be really interested in hearing.

NotImpacted,
It's late so I'll be brief for now.I went through all the same pressures and after about a year decided to go to the training. I also have loved ones who are deeply involved in the mastery training 3 which used to TIT3.As for the significance of Mt. Shasta It's where the ascended master St Germain first appeared to Guy Ballard in Panther Meadows back in 1930.Guy Ballard started the I AM ACTIVITY and the St Germain Foundation which is a New Age theosophical group from the thirties.Cults have been going to Mt Shasta on retreats for 75 years.There is alot more to this story and more to what goes on at Mt Shasta like meditation ,chanting ,decrees,guided imagery "story telling",astral projection and who knows what else and how much of each and in what order unless you were there.Mt Shasta is a beautiful place I'D like to go there and hike and camp and fish and enjoy the outdoors.Some of the things Impact does there are quite bizarre I'm sure.From what I hear the retreat was optional this year I don't know if it always has been.I do know that you commit to mastery 3 training for one year at a time and you are required to go to the mastery training once a month for a year and asked to staff other trainings four times a year minimum.

Hi everyone,

My husband and I are doing ok, He seems to still have some lingering PTSD issues from childhood that were definately worsened by impact, along with some issues from impact. I am trying to encourage him to go to counseling, but so far he hasn't been interested. We have still been reading along and so angry at the impact scum. I have been warning every LDS person I know about it and telling all of them to warn all of their family in utah. I plan to send out a warning email to all my friends and have them send it out to all of theirs and so on. I suggest everyone on here does the same. We may not be able to get people out, but every one we prevent from going in is a miracle. And if they get one, they get all of their family, so its actually preventing more than one.
Like I told you before, I made a complaint to the BBB, I received their ridiculous response he did not complete his commitment (blah, blah, blah) . I knew I wouldn't get anywhere that way, but I still wanted to add another complaint on them to the BBB, the more complaints the better.
I am still waiting to see what my credit card company has to say. I sent in a letter and copies of all the ripoffreports from that web site as well as the address for this forum. I haven't gotten their response yet. I just want to be a thorn in their side. Every dollar I can take from them will bring me pleasure. They really are the scum of the earth. If you are all wondering, my husbands friend who invited him has called and spoke to him a couple times since the "training," he is a brainwashed idiot now, going on about his "experience" (vomit, vomit, vomit) though he was questioning things a little when they told him not to associate with my husband anymore and they have been friends since childhood. Sounds like he only has half a brain now. He read my message on this forum and was upset, good, he should be, he should have never invited my husband to that brainwashing cult, and if he (you, you know who you are) still think that paying a ridiculous amount of money for some untrained idiots to demean you and insult you, and critique you when they know nothing about you, lie to you, tell you there is no such thing as hope, understanding is the booby prize etc and then you get the pleasure of watching that happen to other innocent people, and participating in it yourself, which is something noone would ever do without being forced. Then you get to move on to a demeaning nick name, a horrifying lifeboat. All so you can be loved up by a bunch of losers who get off on hurting people and taking their money. Trying to make you believe your life is worthless without impact. Wow what an "EXPERIENCE," as long as you still think all of that is worth your hard earned money and your right to independent thought and questioning, then you my friend are brainwashed. This is just the harsh reality of impact. Until you are livid at the way you were treated, the wasted money and all the lies, then know that you are brainwashed. There is nothing good about impact trainings-NOTHING



Inshock (but not stupid)

Given that I've never been to Impact and that I no longer have any contact with anyone involved with that effed-up cult, I probably don't have much if anything to contribute to this wonderfully informative board anymore. When I met my Impacted bf (now ex) several months ago, I had never heard of Impact or the New Age shit they all believe in. I was struggling with my own religious (LDS) beliefs at the time and trying to figure out what I believed and what I knew. I'd read some LDS history that turned my sheltered world upside down and inside out. The deeper I delved, the uglier it got. I deliberately isolated myself from my built-in support group -- true-believing LDS friends and family who I could not discuss my doubts with -- because they didn't want to hear about them and I felt guilty for doubting. So I did not talk to anyone. It was loneliness and torture that I could not have imagined prior to experiencing it.

Enter Mr. Impact who seemed to understand (I use that word deliberately and with some irony) where I was coming from. It was a confusing time when Mr. Impact started "angeling" me. I didn't know I was being angeled. I had moments when I seriously wondered if he was off his meds but was more glad for his friendship. Over a period of several weeks, he told me with deep emotion about the law of attraction, angels, crystals, energy, Atlantis, etc. etc. etc. In a sanity-grasping survivalist response, I read Carl Sagan's "The Demon Haunted World," Thomas Paine's "The Age of Reason," and several other books of similar ilk to counterbalance the far-out ideas ex-bf preached. He was obviously disappointed when admitted I could not feel the energy of his Lumerian crystal. I fluctuated between skepticism, wanting to laugh out loud, and wishing I could feel something. Did I really think too much? Would my guardian angels and spirit guides (who he could feel) really communicate with me if I could shut off my brain?

I could never bring myself to do the Impact trainings. I knew it was something he wanted me to do. I had seen enough to know it was a bad idea. I'd never met so many fucked-up "enlightened" people in my entire life, and I visit patients at the Utah State Hospital on occasion for purposes related to my business. I have clients who claim to receive messages from God via songs, movies, and fortune cookies. The only discernible difference I can see between these clients and the Impacted is my clients are involuntarily committed. However, I knew Impact was probably a deal-breaker for bf. I resisted at first primarily because I did not want to be in a relationship with anyone who wanted to change me. Thank god (whoever she is) I retained that insight. I was secretly hoping for the day when bf would wake up and pull his head out of his ass.

He eventually and inevitably left me for someone else. He (and his Impact friends who pretended to be my friends also) lied to me several times about the fact that he was seeing other people all along. Only results matter so it wasn't really a lie in his or his friends' collectively fucked-up minds. He only has to "be his word" if that principal is consistent with his purpose. His purpose was not to be a true friend. His purpose was not to be honest or to have integrity. Rather, his purpose was to manipulate and mold me into someone who would validate his powerful delusion-inspired identity. When I discovered the extent of his dishonesty, I felt like I had been dating an elementary school boy similar in emotional maturity to those trying to look cool for the girls while badly needing deoderant and wearing skivies with skid-tracks.

His leaving/lying gave me the intellectual space and the breathing room I needed to heal from the profound betrayal I felt from my own religion, and to put the pieces together -- some of which he gave me -- to answer all my religious questions. Watching how he felt his way to truth was too similar to what I had been taught and what I used to teach my primary kids: "You have a good feeling inside when we talk about Jesus, don't you, boys and girls. That's the Holy Ghost telling you it's true!" [No, not leading at all]. My experiences with ex-bf put the final nail in my faith's coffin. No longer do I trust any person or religious/spiritual dogma that requires unquestioning faith. The truth may hurt at first, but it shall make you free. I am now happily agnostic, more on the atheist side of the fence than the theist side. Faith is not a virtue. It is a powerful and destructive tool of exploitation and manipulation that the credulous place worshipfully into the hands of the Bergers and the Jim Jones of the world. I feel more peace accepting what I don't know than I ever did in professing beliefs based solely on faith. Life is beautiful! ... More so than ever.

So, I came back to this board after a long hiatus just a couple of days ago and read some of your recent posts. You guys are (dare I use the Impact-defiled word "awesome"??? Nah ...) heroic! It all seems so surreal and dysfunctional in retrospect. The level of delusion Impacters have to create is simply incomprehensible to me. Having never participated in the trainings, I will never truly understand what you amazing people have gone through. My hat is off to each of you, and I sincerely wish you a continued and a happy recovery from the diabolical cult of Impact.

Thanks to each of you for your kindness, wisdom, knowledge, and help during a very strange yet enlightening time in my life. It was brief but well-worth the lessons learned. Keep fighting! Please feel free to PM me if you feel so inclined.

jk.genesis

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jk.genesis
I probably don't have much if anything to contribute to this wonderfully informative board anymore.

Well, I can only speak for myself, but I really appreciated your candor. It felt like looking into a mirror. I have to say that the experience still effects me in ways I don't realize until later. I have to second guess everything to make sure it's really what I believe and not just conditioning. I, too, have problems even with the few good things that Impact stumbled on teaching (even knowing it was just lip service). I don't trust the ideas because I can't trust the source. Yes sometimes people really are "awesome." It sucks that they can defile ideas in that way. Even earlier today I was thinking about how awful it is to feel like you've been spiritually raped.

I was trying to explain to a friend about how hard it is to make discissions. I don't believe in the mormon church any more, either. I don't believe in intuition, spirit guides or any thing like that. Things I was so dependant on before. I explained to him that in the past, the way I would make a discicion was that I would say a prayer and then act on the first warm fuzzy feeling I got and the accompanying thought and follow those "instructions". Now I have to reason it out all in a different way. Yeah, before I think I did think about it and consider the options, but I never had any confidence that I was okay making the descision myself. I needed an "outside" source. Now that I don't think there's some angel whispering in my ear, deciding is a lot tougher.

I am actually doing a lot better than I was. It's just that I've been reading about Flora Jessop and some of the women trying to leave the FLDS cult and the boys who are left for dead because they're unwanted and useless to the cult. It's funny that the world seems like a brighter place now that I don't have to ask anyone for permission to feel righteous or look over my shoulder to make sure I don't say or do anything outside "the lines." But it also seems a lot darker having to see the pain that is caused by spiritual vampires taking advantage of people's desire to matter and to have a happier life.

There was a link to this website on another thread. It's mostly about mediation, but the author hits the nail on the head here with his discription of a cult leader:
[www.lorinroche.com]

I like his comments about the recovery time needed after dealing with a person like this. I may not agree with all he says as far as spirituality goes, but I do really like his perspective.

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too much
I would make a discicion was that I would say a prayer and then act on the first warm fuzzy feeling I got and the accompanying thought and follow those "instructions". Now I have to reason it out all in a different way. Yeah, before I think I did think about it and consider the options, but I never had any confidence that I was okay making the descision myself. I needed an "outside" source. Now that I don't think there's some angel whispering in my ear, deciding is a lot tougher.

Thanks for your comments, Too Much. I'm so sorry for what you've gone through with Impact. It sounds like you're well on the road to recovery though. Just a couple of comments in response to yours. It is difficult to go from relying on faith/God/angels for guidance to taking full responsibility for our own decisions. After being brainwashed to rely on some ethereal being outside of my control, the thought of making certain decisions completely on my own terrified me at first, too. This is because when we're taught to rely on a higher and wiser power for guidance, we're also taught we can't trust ourselves. By "trusting ourselves" I mean trusting our own minds. Others are free to disagree with me and many do, but believing I can't trust myself hurts my sense of self-worth and damages my self-esteem. To me, this is what the "virtue" of faith does to people.

Too Much, the only person you've ever been able to fully trust is yourself. You have "faith" in others only to the extent they have earned your trust. That is as it should be. You would not blindly leave your children with a known child molester who earnestly promised to not touch them inappropriately while you went shopping for a few hours. You would have to make judgments about him based on your best knowledge, not faith or feelings. In fact, if you relied on faith or feelings, you would be irresponsible. Impact teaches that judging others is not a good thing. Bullshit. Judging others, accurately or not, is a developed skill that is necessary for our survival. And if Hans doesn't judge others, I'll eat my hat.

I don't know if there is a God. If there is and God has certain requirements for us to communicate with him/her/it, wouldn't God make those requirements obvious to us? S/he would not expect us all to rely on our feelings because, as we all know, feelings can be incredibly misleading and easily manipulated. Our minds are powerful enough to create our own self-validating delusions, especially after having been beaten down for a few days then told how wonderful we are while people are crying and hugging and emotion-laden music plays in the background. Wouldn't God, if there is one, expect us to use the best and most reliable tools we have when making any decisions? If you were God, wouldn't you be pissed off while watching cults like Impact suck your children into its group delusion? Wouldn't you be frustrated that your children weren't using their best tools, the brains and the reason you gave them?

From what I've observed, my feelings don't pay my bills every month. Feelings don't build houses or cities, create cell phones, cars, or airplanes. Feelings don't even feed the homeless. I may donate to a homeless shelter because of how I feel about the cause, but it's through my work, which is a product of my mind, that I am able to do so. To me, faith and trust are almost synonymous and both must be earned, not given blindly. Who is better qualified to make decisions about your life than you are? Who is better qualified to determine what you value and what your own moral standards should be? Sure, you can seek the advice of trusted friends, advisers, and loved ones. But you've learned the hard way (as we all have to an extent) not to trust those who claim to be a spiritual authority and mediator between you and God or whomever.

It's incredibly liberating and empowering to go from being afraid and feeling unqualified to make your own decisions to realizing there is no one better qualified than you are -- not your parents, not your friends, not your spiritual advisor. My brief brush with Impact only highlighted the fact that when it comes to making important decisions in my life, my faith is only a virtue when I am the object of it.

Too Much, making your own decisions should be liberating and not scary. You can trust yourself to do it. Fuck Impact and anyone else who tells you otherwise. My best wishes to you.