MAD SWEENEY: This is why you never "tell" a faithful JW anything negative about their religion. They have programmed defenses that are all too predictable and powerful.
The only way to get through at all is to ask questions that get them to think and even then it doesn't always work. They have to be ready to do the most psychologically difficult thing it is for a person to do: accept the possibility that they've been wrong, duped, misled, for years or even decades.
Think of what learning the truth about the Borg did to you at first? Remember the anger? The anguish? The denial? Now imagine there is a part of the psyche that KNOWS that anguish is a possible result of accepting new and contrary information; how will new and contrary information be treated? It will be avoided at all costs because nobody wants to go through those horrible emotions. It isn't done consciously but that doesn't make it any less real.
The anger? YES. The anguish? YES. YES. The denial? YES. YES. YES.
It is unbelievably painful! That's why I think it typically is a gradual progression. People usually have SO MUCH invested that it is crushing to come to the realization that everything they have believed in, hoped in, trusted in, built their lives around, based every major decision around, defended to family and friends, been persecuted over, is in fact, a house of cards. For years they were convinced they had rock solid evidence as to what they believed. They were among the select few to have "it right". Others were all blinded by "the veil". And the, it comes crashing down. It doesn't stand up to serious scrutiny. How were they so gullible? How were they so WRONG?
How long did you wonder if you would have been better off/happier to have remained living the delusion?
DOC