There is a natural life cycle to Witness mentality

by Terry 3 Replies latest jw friends

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  Terry

  I was thinking about how everything in life has a cycle to it.

  Physiologists tell us that when you fall in love (for instance) the brain is awash in "happy" chemicals that cause you to bond and idealize.

  This lasts about 6 months and then.....you get your mind back and reality sets in Just long enough to do some damage

  But, with religion and God and numinous thinking I'd venture to say the cycle is longer than that.

  I do think we "fall in love" with the god of our choice and have a numinous experience and start trippin' on the happy happy at the beginning.

  But, real life has a way of editing the chemical bath and the frontal lobes eventually kick in.

  I would venture to guess the life cycle of a religious event is roughly a decade.

  See if you can agree with me on this.

  You have your skeptical introduction to religion and you are wary just like in courtship with a person.

  Then, there is the "getting to know you" discovery period. Dating God, as it were. You hold hands and whisper alot.

  Afterward, there is the passionate embrace and the magic happens for real.

  Eventually, you settle in to your relationship and meet each others' needs.

  But--

  at a certain point in this cycle you DO FINALLY get some objectivity back.

  At that juncture you can ask feasible questions. You can regroup and get a broader (less emotional) view.

  Life becomes more and more practical.

  I'd say at the end of the ten year cycle it is "make it or break it" time!

  You are either going to dig in and have a "come what may I'm in this for the long haul" attitude....or...

  you'll have your eyes opened and summon the strength to call a mistake for what it is.

  Particularly, among Jehovah's Witnesses I'd say there is a definite time span involved and when the natural cycle kicks in a door opens which is an opportunity to stay in or get out. It takes real courage to jump. Many are too emotionally involved and others too depressed while still others just

  don't want to count a loss as a loss.

  Anybody want to give their opinion on what this cycle may be?
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  Bob_NC

  Interesting for sure. I have read and heard of the 7-year cycle for love and romance. Supposedly, if a couple makes it beyond 7 years and are still happy with each other, then chances for a life-long relationship are good.

  So is ten years about right with religion? I can speak only for me. About 8 or 9 years after I got baptized I read an "apostate" book by a former CO. So I was willing to consider other possibilties about my love affair with "the truth". After reading the book I became really slack for a few years. But then something rekindled my love affair with"the truth" and I became zealous again for another 20 years. During the last 20 years I think way down deep somewhere I knew the real deal but was just not willing to face reality yet. But the intense love affair was long gone. I just knew how to do the truth pretty well by then.
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  Terry

  I was recently contacted by somebody I knew the year I got out of prison, 1969. They were a JW for 30 years!

  Imagining that kind of soul death made me depressed all day!

  I guess each of us just has to find out personally in a way that makes sense to us alone.

  You can't make somebody realize anything.
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  caliber

  interesting for sure. I have read and heard of the 7-year cycle for love and romance. Supposedly, if a couple makes it beyond 7 years and are still happy with each other, then chances for a life-long relationship are good.

  ARE you the same person now that you were fifteen years ago? In fact, are you the same person you were just seven years ago? Most of us have heard the old saying that every cell in the body is changed over a period of seven years; but recent investigation has uncovered facts of far more significance to us as human beings. This concerns the emotional, physical and mental changes that seem to occur in approximate seven-year intervals

  -7 Years – 7-14 Years – 14-21 Years – 21-28 Years – 28-35 Years – 35-42 Years - 42-49 Years – 49-56 Years – 56-63 Years – 63-70 Years – 70-77 Years – 77-84 Years http://dreamhawk.com/body-and-mind/every-seven-years-you-change/

  So you get about 12 cycles

  the other factor is the strong first 7 years...

  But something so mysterious happens to us during this first seven years that once done it can never be undone. The Roman Catholic Church recognises this by saying that if they can have the first seven years of a child’s life, that is all they need to insure a lifelong influence. Napoleon also observed that as the twig is bent, so the tree will grow.The learning of language is like a powerful computer program that gives us the ability to develop an identity and self awareness

  so which cycle were you in when exposed to "the Truth " (TM ) ?

  0-7 years

  One of the most important of these inputs is that of the unconscious behavioural responses we learn. From the moment you are born, perhaps even prior to that, you are learning, or there are pressed upon you, responses to what you are experiencing. The culture you are born into is a huge ready-made set of behavioural responses

  14-21 years

  This is the third cycle, from fourteen to twenty-one. During it we become conscious of ourselves in a new way, and with a different relationship to life. One might say we become “self conscious
  35-42 years

  From the thirty-fifth to the forty-second year, depending upon one’s personality and what one’s circumstances allow, one begins to feel a new restlessness. In some degree a desire to share whatever one has gained through life with others comes to the surface. Thus

  42-49 years

  In the next cycle from forty-two until forty-nine a major change usually takes place. It is as if one takes all of one’s life experience up till this age and begins to digest it, and extract from it new ideals and a new direction in life. There is often tremendous unrest in this period and that following it. The unlived aspects of life cry out to be recognised and allowed. The desire to make a mark in life if it has not already been achieved presses for action here.

  At this point it appears to many of us that we have reached the mid point of our life and from here on there will be a decline. Even if this is not so it is often felt very strongly and acted upon in one way of another. People change partners, life directions, and even attempt major personal changes, although these latter may have begun in the last cycle.

  I have also heard it said the it takes 1 year for every 5 years to change indoctrination... I'm thnking this would apply to the adult mind

  Those born- in would face a much longer time of influence ( imbedded information )