Where are YOU on the NEEDS Pyramid?

by lonelysheep 20 Replies latest jw experiences

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  lonelysheep

  Jgnat's statement here reminded me of the needs pyramid, and my placement on it as a jw potential convert, as well as where I am now.

  Jgnat: "Besides the failure to love their vocation, I think a big problem is that with the Witnesses there is only one cause and only one activity. There is no accommodation for various talents or abilities. What of the creative Witness who likes to cook, sew, paint, or play an instrument? How is the introvert Witness accommodated? What of the motherly types who love to work with children? The caring personalities who love nothing more than to provide individualised care for a shut-in? The hard-working helpers who fix and build? (1 Corinthians 12)."

  A Brooklyn gem was Andrew Maslow, the psychologist who constructed this pyramid.
  

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Maslow

  Where are you? (Not something to answer here if you don't want to.)
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  Awakened07

  I'm barely on the 'Belonging and love' step (almost slipping off of it), although I should be able to put my foot... *there* ... and jump up to the 'Self esteem' step from time to time. Yep - I can do that sometimes. [edit] -Actually, following the illustration on the Wikipedia page instead of the one in this thread, I sometimes am barely on the lowest step... Then again, I sometimes - when I've managed to jump as described above - I can just reach the top part, and be creative. What I mean to say it that in my experience, you don't work your way up each step and then the steps you've left behind are solid and never changing. So sometimes you could say I'm on top of the pyramid, but then again there may be a couple of things missing from the lower steps (as per the Wikipedia version) [/edit]
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  nvrgnbk

  I guess it depends what day and what time of day.
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  jgnat

  I've thought long and hard about Maslow's pyramid. What he does not accommodate is the primary need to do good. I think of the many testimonies of hungry strangers in a foreign land who have been invited in to a poor man's home to share is bread. One could say that poor family is barely scraping at the bottom of the barrel. Yet, the family lives with honor, offering the little they have. They are living at the bottom of the pyramid and achieving the top.

  I think rather that people strive for what they think is achievable. The poor man living in a hovel in a third world country may not even be able to supply the basic physical needs of his family. But he can still live a noble life. So he strives to be that. In our prosperous West, some of us despair of ever achieving spiritual goals. So we acquire goods instead. You could say we in the West got stuck at the bottom, thinking there is no hope of achieving the top.
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  stillajwexelder

  Right at the top
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  RollerDave

  Bah!

  I've seen that thing before.

  Russell and Rutherford were at the level of need where they needed control, and to set phony dates... oh, that was a different pyramid.

  I'm at the top, where all I need is to be the best Rollerdave I can be. Oh, and a cup of coffe.

  I need coffee.

  Rollerdave
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  changeling

  I need all that stuf!!! Who doesn't??? Am I too needy? Are you calling me needy???

  changeling
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  Tyrone van leyen

  Yes, I have studied this pyramid 25 years ago. I had all of what it takes to reach the top ,until the witness arrrangement hijacked, what we all seek. If one could reach the top of this pyramid without the obstacles the" Society" has put in place, we wouldn't need there Bullshit. They create a dependancy midstream in life and set up rules which make the rest of the pyramd obsolete until their bullshit new system arrives.

  I feel sometimes as if this hijacking has been studied by these effin jerks and they know exactly when and how to impose their rules on those who wish to skip a step in life and live under the illusion that they are satisfied with what life has to offer before they have tasted the whole pie. The only witnesses that acheive self actualization, albeit in a twisted fashion, are those who hold all the strings and make the rules for others. Their self actualization is a fantasy,the rank and file make possible by beleiveing and supporting the rules which they lay out. It is a pyramid in which they step on the bodies of those who beleive in them, to reach the sky. This pyramid will collapse as it has been powered by an illusion, rather than the strength of character that comes from within, and the following of an inner pilot that leads to true self actualization.

  There are whole generations that will never reach there potential, and when this reality hits.,this self actualization of where one really is in life, it will be the weapon forged to bring such theives liars and cons to there knees. The real game of life is afoot, and they will be brought to the bottom of the pyramid sooner or later in the information age. They will have to come about their Grandiosity in truthfulness or die as the usurpers of MOJO that they are.

  TYRONE VANLEYEN
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  lonelysheep

  Right...the top of the pyramid is blocked unless you are the rule-maker in the jw's.
  
  Anyone or anything getting in the way of a person's self-actualization can create despair.
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  Tyrone van leyen

  Since the witnesses crucified me, I spent many years at the bottom of this pyramid just barely meeeting even that standard. Many who wash windows or do menial labour jobs are still at this stage as well. I was at the the stage of feeling loved and actually reverted back to the first stage by having my trust damaged as many on this borad I'm sure would agree. Coming to Jwd I definately feel love but trusting and my ability to bond with people still seems a strecth. The third stage of reaching self esteem becomes almost impossible for someone who grew up in this scneario and knew nothing else. Anyone that feels love and has there self esteem in tact would be insane to move towards this organization.

  One of the traps of this org is the fact that many people join because they feel loved and purpose for the frist time and find it diffiCULT to return to a harsh unloving world. When veiwing the world as something temporary that will be destroyed and told not to pursue a higher education and when surrounded by loved ones who enforce this thinking you are trapped becuase you are using a model of the world which is false.

  My father told me that having humility is a good thing and what the brothers did to me would set me up for better things in life. I recognized right away how he was playing with words and told him. Yes humility is good at times but being humiliated publicly is damaging beyond beleif. Many families don't even realize how they contribute to the minimized and detrimental thinking which thwarts all the possibilities that life has to offer. It like hijacking your own friggin family. UNBELEIVABLE!!!!