Is the "Watchtower Study" = Question and answer a form of brainwashing??

by Witness 007 42 Replies latest watchtower bible

• 

  kurtbethel

  It is certainly mind numbing.

  My own study kept going off the rails for two reasons.

  I would give a Bible answer to the question instead of the Watchtower answer, and when I would get asked about that I would say exactly what I was doing.

  I would dismiss those questions, saying they were not my questions, then ask real questions. My questions often got long rambling non answers. I would thank them for sharing that with me, but I didn't ask that and could they please answer my question.

  This made me realize my mind is impervious to their way of antithinking.
• 

  Hoffnung

  Brainwashing. Maybe that term is too much loaded.

  Fact is, if you have to rephrase something and reproduce it in front of a group, you will make it your own. So it definitely has an effect on our opinion. it definitely is an influencing technique like many others.

  Hoffnung
• 

  NVR2L8

  What people learn in school and university from manuals and textbooks are usually proven points or written according to established rules such as grammar, vocabulary, mathematics, geography, chemestry, astronomy, all of it having being proven by experiment and when something is a theory it is treated as such. Even literature is categorized into life stories, fiction, science fiction, mythology, history...with the WT everything is considered as coming from God whether it makes sense or not and the only object of your "study" is for you to conform. There is no room for reasoning, testing, experimenting or debating...this has all been taken care for you. Like at a restaurant...you may feel you are free to eat anything you want...but in the end the chef decides what's on the menu.
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  InterestedOne

  Thank you NVR2L8. Good points contrasting the WT study with university study.
• 

  00DAD

  There is a reason why the person that leads the WT Study is called a "Conductor" and not a teacher. He merely follows a set course of "study". Don't think outside the box Brother. Stick to the print. Even an orchestra conductor has more latitude with "interpretation" than a WT Conductor, but he still needs to stick to the notes.

  In the old days, the Theocratic Ministry School Overseer at least got to teach speaking and oral presentation skills, that was until the Leadership--in their infinite wisdom--decided to get rid of Public Counsel. Everyone's a Winner! Woo-hoo, no matter how much you suck the TMS Overseer still needs to say "Good job! Atta-brother/sister. No sit down." We can't risk damaging someone's "self-esteem" by actually suggesting ways to improve. God knows it's hard enough for the TMS to consistently get the publishers to keep their commitments. It's curious the school is so stressful for so many since it's really dumbed down. Most of the friends would completely flounder if they actually tried going to a real college or university! ... but I digress ...

  The Bible Reading even used to allow some opportunity for expressing research and individual insight and application, but again, the Leadership--in their infinite wisdom--got rid of that too: "Just read the ink Brother. Don't comment. No we don't care what you have to say. No original thought is required or even encouraged."

  Some KM parts had a little wiggle room to actually teach, but not much. They kept the timing constraints so tight that you couldn't really squeeze much in that wasn't in the article. More and more they became a mini-WT type of setting:

  Ask questions, regurgitate answers, call it food. Which brings a thought to mind, isn't pre-digested food usually referred to as VOMIT! Mmmmm, gotta' get me soma' that! Yum!!! - Mt. 24:45

  

  Please, sir. I want some more!
• 

  Billy the Ex-Bethelite

  Teary: The Land Law II instructor in particular, mainly assigns the study guide questions that go along with the book, wherein the student takes in the question, reads the textbook chapter, and then finds/highlights the answer from the material in that chapter.

  I have had a few classes that are rather "by the book". Discussions and material was rather straightforward without much outside discussion of the material.

  However...

  You cover the material, take the exam, and you're done. In Watchtowerland, it's the same material over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over.

  Teary, will you be taking the course "Land Law II" continuously for the next 45 years? Or is this a one semester class that you will pass and actually move on from to progress to "higher learning" and other material?
• 

  jonathan dough

  It worked for the Nazi propaganda machine. http://www.144000.110mb.com/directory/jesus_michael_angel_archangel.html
• 

  MrMonroe

  "Brainwashing" is probably a pop-culture phrase that means little in a scientific context. But the WT study method is a form of learning by rote, using what Ray Franz described as a "catechistical" type of teaching. (See In Search of Christian Freedom, p. 420). It is certainly a form of indoctrination when meeting attendees are asked questions but permitted to provide only certain, pre-supplied answers. Anyone straying from the tight boundaries will be spoken to afterwards.

  Witnesses praise their organisation because of its "unity" of thinking, but ignore how this is achieved. It is a uniformity imposed on them by an autocratic leadership that is intolerant of dissent or diversity, and reinforced through very strong peer pressure.
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  00DAD

  Teary writes: The Land Law II instructor in particular, mainly assigns the study guide questions that go along with the book, wherein the student takes in the question, reads the textbook chapter, and then finds/highlights the answer from the material in that chapter. Truly that professor is a far, far more evil man than Teary ever realized

  Billy the Ex-Bethelite adds: I have had a few classes that are rather "by the book". Discussions and material was rather straightforward without much outside discussion of the material.

  I respond: We've all had classes like that. They are boring classes led by boring, unimaginative, uninspiring "teachers". Usually you can't wait for it to end!!! Hmm, "Taught by Jehovah." And that's the best they can do! I don't think so!!!

  No Teary, you're professor probably isn't evil, just boring ... Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

  

  Anyone? Anyone?
• 

  Shanagirl

  In my opinion All the meetings are a form of brainwashing. First they are very long, and repetitive, and I feel that after a time, you can tune out mentally during the talks and disassociate. Probably a lot of JW's have some sort of disassiative tendencies related to the long meetings. They've been burdened with all the meaningless busy work the WT puts on them, along with guilt, sleep depravation from late meetings for children and babies, constant JW conversation from meetings, service, bible studies, "gatherings", not being allowed to read or look at any outside literature, and friendships. Yep, definitely brainwashing.

  Shana