dreamgolfer:
I am sorry that you found out so rudely that what you thought was a deep friendship was merely conditional. This is a deep blow to all of us, even those of us who "know" this as a fact from other people's experience in the religion. It just feels so bad when it becomes REAL to you.
In my own case, I was on the fringes of the religon and my "friends" there were few. While many people in the hall were nice, they were only friendly inside the hall and I never saw them anywhere else. I came to feel that their smiles meant nothing really and I (and perhaps others there) were nothing more than a hologram on the wall, there in our "setting". So, what was this, something like that mythical place Brigadoon?
Because these people weren't really my friends, when I began my "fade", it was not much of a loss to me. When you really think about it, somebody who is your friend should be your friend no matter where you see them, and THEY shouldn't be afraid to venture out of their "setting".