THE ANALOGY OF LEAVING THE ORGANIZATION OF JWs

by PublishingCult 7 Replies latest jw experiences

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  PublishingCult

  Can you give an analogy of what it was like (for you personally) leaving the organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses?
  
  For me, it was very much like the story of mountain climber Aron Ralston.

  
  
  The canyon wall of the narrow passage was the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society.
  
  The boulder crushing and pinning my hand to the canyon wall was my belief system, my JW indoctrination.
  
  My hand was my mangled confused crushed ability to reason, inoperable and useless to assist, and if my hand stayed pinned between the rock and the hard place, I would eventually die.
  
  I could not tell the cold deaf stone how it was hurting me, nor could I ask the merciless stone to release me, for it did not have the ability to reason, and preferred to rest in the comfort of its imposing weight. I could not move the boulder for it was too heavy and wedged too tightly between the narrow canyon walls. It was fixed and overwhelming. Though it did not have all of me, it only needed to keep my hand trapped where it was to prevent the rest of me from getting free, and from living.

  
  
  After many hours (months) of fear, confusion, delusion, searching for ways to lift the boulder and flee with my hand in tact, it came down to severing the dead hand, now obviously and completely dead, to get free.

  

  The WTBTS may have taken part of me, part of my life, my mind, but I am free.

  

  I do what I love, I love who I want, and live the way I need to. In some ways the new prosthesis of my heart and mind, my beliefs, my rationality, my sense of reason and logic is better and stronger than what I had to cut off and leave behind. It might always continue to feel a bit awkward, though.
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  Lunatic Faith

  Great analogy! Especially the part about how we may have to part with something we considered valuable but it is better than sacrificing our life. I do feel like I have lost something important to that organization, but at least I didn't give them everything and I am getting on with my life. Great Thinking!!

  The analogy I have used is that leaving the JW's is like leaving the Mafia. Once a person commits they are in for good--one way or another--we never escape. Some of us may manage to fly under the radar but others of us will eventually be hunted down and exterminated.
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  exwhyzee

  For me, staying in the organization was like the woman who stays in an abusive or loveless marriage because her husband had convinced her she was useless without him. Once she leaves she realizes the control he had on her mind and how distorted her thinking had become

  "Better the devil you know. than the one you don't know" is often the reasoning that makes one cling to something that clearly isn't working anymore.
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  WTWizard

  It's like the world is a lion--you are afraid of it until you realize it's not going to hurt you. In fact, that "lion" is more likely to be an asset than being quarantined in the witlesses--where you are sure to stagnate.
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  saltyoldlady

  Magnificent - if I knew how to post pictures here I'd use the one a brother once gave me of a hammer hitting the nail right on.
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  willyloman

  We gave you a G for use of illustrations and look forward to your next talk.
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  clarity

  Wow PublishingCult - profound words ...

  "Though it did not have all of me, it only needed to keep my hand trapped where it was to prevent the rest of me from getting free, and from living."

  For me .... maybe it was more like being on a raft in the middle of the ocean. At first it seemed a godsend to have found it as it seemed I had found safety there.

  But then it started to break-up, keeping my balance was difficult now as the boards nailed to the framework tore apart. The salt air made me so thirsty. The thing started to sink. I couldn't swim you know.

  Now I'm really struggling for my life, floating & grasping at the loose boards ... and still so thirsty. I try to swim but go under, gulping the salt water. Through the waves I spy the shore and start to hope. Weeping and not sure I have the strength, I kick on and finally I lay there on the warm sand in the light of the sun, and I think......I made it!

  clarity
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  JamesS

  Hmm, thats really an interesting analogy.

  I think maybe leaving the witnesses is like leaving the earth's atmosphere - it takes an awful lot of energy to escape its gravity, and if I go back I'll burn up on re-entry!! :-)