(This is a letter I wrote to my cousin after she left from visiting me after 3 years!! She flew 5 hours to see me last weekend!!)
Hi ****! I'm so happy you came to ***** and visited me!! I had so much fun visiting with you and going places. I can't wait to see you again! :) I hope I get to meet **** again! Ok so here some good stuff that helped me understand, learn, then cope and recover from Jehovah's Witnesses . First listen to Raymond Franz a wonderful, good hearted man who was part of the governing body... his life story is amazing! It sums up his book Crisis of Consciences... which is a really good read. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6c6I0fjiYNU It just shows you the commitment he made and how no matter how long you've dedicated your life to something there is a way out and you can escape ... His friend that also left Edward Dunlap was a Watchtower Gilead Instructor... his audio confession is so amazing to listen too as well. http://www.watchtowernews.org/media/video.htm On a physiological level and helping with combating the struggles faced dealing with family members in cults and releasing yourself from a cult, Steven Hassan is a exiting counselor with two good books Combating mind control and Releasing the bonds. http://freedomofmind.com/books/ http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5351483270625598640# He not only helps with controlling cult but controlling relationships, work places or anything that holds a person back from being themselves... that is why I wish mom got ahold of this. I go to a discussion forum that is incouraging and helpful in finding answers and sources to research material information. There are a few people I look at their discussions especially because of their background with Jehovah's Witnesses. http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/182280/1/You-are-Still-Special-After-Exiting-the-Witnesses-You-Have-a-Purpose-in-Life Mr Flipper is a really nice guy from California who reached out to me. I have his number and he has talked to me on the phone a few times. If you notice Outlaw's comments on other peoples posts... she's funny! I enjoy her sower castic comments as well. Here is my first post!! NoticeYknot!! She's amazing and smart!! Anytime she posts a comment on your discussion it's amazing answers! You need to post on here and start an account. Let me know who you are though so I can look for your comments and posts! http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/beliefs/180649/1/Is-there-encouragement-and-hope-for-the-disfellowshipped I like looking at AllTimeJeff's posts! His and ex-elder. It's really intersting because that's how alot of elders are around here and I wonder sometimes if that's how they feel. http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/beliefs/182330/1/Everything-About-Being-An-Elder-is-Weird-my-misc-rambling-memories-of-being-an-elder So when I posted for the second time about the subject I learned that Jehovah's Witnesses use to tell their members that it was wrong to excommunicate!! http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/beliefs/181638/1/Back-Again-about-Disfellowshipment-Please-Help Lady Lee is a wonderful lady who is a retired counselor... who I told you about... she was sexually abused and has such an amazing story of recovery! She emailed me and gave me alot of encouragement! http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/beliefs/201093/1/My-column-today-on-Freeminds-Being-Disfellowshipped This other post I made is when I learned Ray Franz was still alive and responded to email and calls sometimes. And that Barbara Anderson also was someone to listen to and look up! She was part of the writing department at Bethal . http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/bible/187583/1/Crisis-of-Conscience-page-23 Barbara Anderson is an amazing person, I love reading about her as well. http://www.watchtowerdocuments.com/ Here is where you can do your research and find really old articles. http://www.a2z.org/wtarchive/archive.htm#magazines http://www.archive.org/details/WatchTowerBibleandTractSocietyofPennsylvaniaWatchTowerpubs_0 Here is Jehovah's Witnesses offissial site they use to download articles http://www.jw.org/index.html?option=QrYQCsVrGZNT An hour long video that talks about the Jehovah's Witnesses and the bad side they don't talk about. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7529203252348464576# What we watched when you were over... by Randell Watters. http://www.freeminds.org/static-content/all-static-content/coming-out-of-the-watchtower-why-so-difficult.html?q=coming Randell Watters use to be in Bethal as well he is a strong protester against Jehovah's Witnesses. Some of his stuff is really good insight on how it was in Bethal and his research and understanding of mind control is good too. http://www.freeminds.org/psychology/cults/coming-out-of-the-watchtower-why-is-it-so-difficult.html Another good source to videos and audio of what members went through being a Jehovah's Witness. http://www.dannyhaszard.com/cultvideos.htm Here is where you can find a ex Jehovah's Witness support group near you. http://www.jwinfoline.com/Page/page_support_questions_2.htm Hope you enjoy this!! I love you and am so happy I have someone that's family and understands how it feels to deal with Jehovah's Witnesses. Love, **** (She wrote back) Thank you soo much for those links!! :) its going to take me a long time to watch/read all of it, lol. but i will, i promisE! Love, **** (The story behind my cousin is she is nonactive and never wants to go back... actually going to join the military. She had to move 6 hours away so she could disappear. She is married to a guy who understands somewhat cause he was brought in and raised but never became baptised. She is struggling though at times like me because of our family (our parents, siblings, and grandparents). She's the only one I feel that understands and I love that I'm not the only one. The only thing is she lives really far away and I hardly get to see her it's been three years!)