Mind Control

by brotherdan 40 Replies latest jw friends

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  Pat_4037

  Paul had the same problem regarding his own Jewish people. He lamented that he would give up his own salvation, if he could, so that Isreal would turn to their Messiah, Yeshua,aka Jesus. But apparently it wasn't part of Gods plan at the time. Their blindness was part of Gods plan for our salvation. The veil that covers the eyes of many is something only God can remove. We believe because God imparts the faith to us to do so. If I had been smart or clever enough to figure it out for myself then I would have something to boast about and Gods gift would no longer be free and undeserved it would be a work of man

  We continue to pray that God will open the eyes of the blinded ones that we love and care about. He hears our prayers and he is working on their behalf in ways we do not see.

  Blessings - Pat

  PS If I wasn't home this week suffering from a terrible cold I wouldn't have found this site or have had the time to read and post as much as I have. I am not happy to be sick but I am very happy to be here.
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  BluesBrother

  "I found that "walk aways" were people had been able to maintain contact with people outside the destructive cult.

  That is very true...., Is that why they say that "Bad associations spoil useful habits" ? Certainly the WTS is very much aware of that risk.

  In my case, I came to realise that there were people out there that were never going to become J Ws but they had morality, decency and a love of God. I just knew in my heart that God would never kill them off because they did not accept the WT. Put that together with some disillusionment over the time of the end never ending - and one day it all came to me in a "eureka moment" , "It's just not true" I realised

  What I do nor understand is the dubs I know who have been around a long time. They agree that God will not kill all the unbelievers, they know that The Society has been wrong many times in the past (and find that funny) they say the latest generation idea is crazy (in private) they say the G Body seems bizarre in what they print.....but, they still cling to the "Truth" like a limpet on a sail boat .

  Are they just too stuck in their ways?
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  brotherdan

  I totally agree with you blues. I always had a major problem with thinking that KIDS would be killed because of their parents actions. Freddy Franz would say, though, that little rats grow up to be big rats. Or something like that. Sick sick sick.
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  brotherdan

  PS - Welcome Pat! You should post your story here sometime!
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  darth frosty

  Welcome pat sorry to hear about your cold but glad it brought you here!
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  elderelite

  Very nice thread dan.. I think for me the two points mentioned were key for me

  having friends outside the org.. I always have. I was never big on "bad association is evil".. i work with people all day i have to be somewhat friendly with them and the more I hung out the more I realized they were a lot like me. Honest folks trying to make a living.

  and the critical thinking. I have a fairly sensitve bullshit meter. needless to say its been going off like crazy for years but CD is a bitch.. it took all of a few days reading here to send me down this road..
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  Pat_4037

  http://www.hallam.faithweb.com/index.html This is the URL to our web site. On my About Me page you can read a shortened version of my testimony. or you can read my introductory statement as follows.

  I have enjoyed reading the many posts here. Someone mentioned that I slipped in unseen so here I am for all to meet. In 1964 I entered college as a diest and by 1966 I was a committed Athiest. In 1967 I had a near death experience and immediately found myself in a place of torment. I knew that I belonged there and would be there for eternity. As I took this all in I reallized that there is a consciousness after death. Not nothingness as I had believed. A thought entered my mind that asked me "What have you done in your life that was without selfish motives. I thought about it and was overcome with regret because I knew that I always acted FOR MY OWN PURPOSES. I was sorry that that was so.

  When I came too and realized I was back in this world something had changed in me and I now began a 3 year search for spiritual reality. I dabbled in the New Age, and other fringe religous movements but they did not fill my needs. Shortly after the birth of my 3rd child two young men appeared at my door. I thought they might be Mormons but they turned out to be JWs. They asked me to read a pamphlet that asked the question "should Christians read the Bible?". I told them I was not a Christian but if I were I would say that reading the Bible would be the thing to do. For a few weeks they would come and we would visit then I suddenly found myself reading the Bible and being intrigued by the person of Jesus. I actually called a local Kingdom Hall and requested that someone come and help me understand who this Jesus was. Soon a young couple was sent and they began a weekly Bible Study with me. They would come on Tuesday afternoon and a few months later I was invited to a Tuesday evening Bible Study with a group of Christians from the neighborhood. On my first visit to this study I shared with them what I was learning with the JWs and a young woman suggested we get together to talk as she had studied with JWs for 2 years. Since she was not a JW I felt she might have some much needed insights into this group. I continued to study with both groups but I found myself drawn to the Christians in the evening study. They were very accepting of me and I appreciated their patience. The JWs would ask me what I had read and what did I understand it to mean. If my understanding of the scriptures I was reading differed from their understanding they would tell me I was wrong and correct me. This got to be quite tedious and I felt that somehow I didn't need someone else to interpret what I was reading and understanding. I began to visit at the local Kingdom Hall and joined a Bible Study that was held there and i discovered they didn't even read their Bibles for this study. They simply studied from a book that told them what the Bible was really saying in those areas. Pretty much a commentary study. This did not sit well with me and eventually I bld fairwell to the coup[le I was being mentored by and told them that I was headed in a different direction than what they taught. I said if my search for truth brought me back to them I would return. But I like to point out that after almost 40 years I've never been back and eventually came to not only believe in God but I eventually accepted Jesus as God Incarnate and the Holy Spirit as the third person of the Trinity.

  I have always had a warm affection for the JWs because through them I was directed to the truth and I yearn to share with them the truth that will set them free. I recently have been witnessing to a young JW who persistently returns to my home for visits and since I believe that God wants me to continue to witness to him I found this place on the internet hoping to understand where he is comming from. And if God should grant me the opportunity to see his eyes opened to the truth a place like this would be ideal for him to come. He is a 2nd or 3rd generation JW and very much devoted to the work that sends him house to house. This is everything in a larger nutshell. But I believe God has been preparing me for ministry to fringe groups for years. I have spent time with a Shaman who was so taken by Jesus she felt he must be a great Shamam and I had a 2nd generation Mormon living at our home for about 6 months and although she enjoyed our time together she left a "Jack Mormon" her term not mine. I believe some plant seeds, others water and still others reap where others have sown.

  Blessings - Pat
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  Liberty

  I think one of the primary reasons why only a certain percentage of people are able to leave a cult has to do with their self-honesty combined with how much they value objective truth. When exposed to even minimal alternative view points those predisposed to self honesty take the chance to reevaluate and test their "reality" against the evidence. Many people in the general non-cult population are not honest with themselves nor do they value objective truth(reality?) but this is less of a dailey concern for them than for a cult member since the cult member is required to examine and reexamine their actions and beliefs with much greater concentration along with the greater consequences.

  The fact that most of us on this forum live in Western-style democracies does allow for us to be exposed to alternate views of reality, very unlike cult-countries like Saudia Arabia or North Korea where alternate realities are severly prohibited and punishable even by death, hence 98% compliance. In short, I think the percentage of self-honest people is the same throughout all populations but we see them more clearly in a cult like the JWs that thrive in mostly open societies(which are tolerant of cults since they are not directly competing with them for aligiance)

  As I recall, Brother Dan you have pursued a higher education which exposed you to alternate realities beyond the "normal" JW, but even for those who avoid exposure in this way the free society leaks a great deal of allternative ideas in TV, radio, books, magazines, movies, games,"worldly" aquaintences, etc. This alternative information combined with a truth seeking personality leads to the realization that there may be other ways of looking at reality
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  NiceDream

  I agree that having friends outside the org was key for me too. I had great friends at school who weren't dysfunctional like my witness friends. And all my relatives are not JWs, so I saw they were good people and they loved me unconditionally. It was a contrast to the lack of love at the meetings.

  Another key for me is I'm a skeptical person, so I questioned the origins of the JWs since I was a teen. It just didn't sit right. Why would God start up a religion in America at the turn of the century? Once they changed their generation teaching AGAIN, I knew something wasn't right.

  Like you brotherDan, I also believed the GB was God's representative and we needed to listen and obey everything they said. Once I realized that was false, I couldn't understand why my family would stay in the religion knowing that the GB wasn't God's representative! It's gotta be mind control.
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  goldensky

  I'm following this thread with interest, Brotherdan, because up to this day, over a year after my awakening, I still can't pinpoint what made me realize the organization has never been directed by Jehovah or Jesus Christ. I, of all Witnesses, was amongst the most unlikely to ever turn away from "the truth": I was fully devoted, not just in appearance, but with my whole heart. My love for Jehovah was the very core of my being for as long as I can remember. I just LOVED to be a Witness and for over four decades kept wondering why I, without any particularly deserving qualities, had been so privileged to be among Jehovahs's people. I really wish I knew how the impossible finally happened: I walked right out from one day to the next, leaving all the brothers who have ever known me absolutely astounded (up to this day). Why did I begin to doubt two years before my departure, if nothing new had been added to the knowledge I had been familiar with all my life? Why did I suddenly begin to have flashes of logical thinking while washing the dishes, while walking in the street, totally out of the blue? Why did those flashes keep intensifying in frequency and relevance? Why did I suddenly remember what dozens of householders (basically my exclusive outside contacts) had been telling me over those decades and it all made sense now? I keep looking for the trigger, without success. All I know is that I've been in a state of sheer euphoria ever since I made my decision on a morning like any other morning, when the whole picture shone through my mind...