Check out the new FREEMINDS 2.0 currently at:
So the old and new will be combined all in one site shortly at freeminds.org. We will be offering free blogs, video uploads, and other interesting things in the next few weeks. It is incomplete, so be patient as we get it all set up. But if you have a good story and "play nice," you can have your own blog AND email address (hopefully) at the new freeminds.org.
The old Joomla site is just getting too buggy. Wordpress is much better. Also, all my other five or six sites will be there as well, all in one stick of dynamite to stick up someone's rear end... but mainly the new section (2.0) is more friendly, will have many exclusive intellectual AND humorous videos and contributors with key people. No more extensive doctrinal articles from me as they are all on the older freeminds.org site (which will be up there as well, so nothing is lost).
The new site will be primarily helpful to all the countless thousands that will be leaving soon. That is the main reason for setting it up. It will be a virtual halfway house with something most all exjw sites are completely missing: HUMOR. Something almost ENTIRELY lacking on all the ex-JW sites. Why do you think that is?
No GENERAL discussion board, but sections for all types of personalities and lifestyles, and discussion boards for special interest groups that will be moderated for indecent behavior.
On the other hand, CRIMINAL behavior by WT leaders will be irreverently exposed! If you like intelligent talk shows, you will probably enjoy it.
And the newer section now up at freeminds2.org will be ipod, ipad and other small devices-friendly! I'm not going to reformat the 2500 older Joomla blogs and submissions, but restore them back from their original html (pre-2000) and eventually incorporate the more popular ones older ones into Wordpress format. Most all of the older files and blog entries will be there as well, but I am archiving all the old blogs that the writers have quit writing in... but they will be accessible easily.
We are seeking new bloggers who can WRITE, who can SPELL or use spellchecks, Videographers, notable figures to interview, etc. But that is for resident writers... you can still be poor at all the above and have your own blog free if you play nicely. You will have to learn to post the articles yourself if you have a personal blog.
My 30-year project of crippling the control of the WT (along with many other old-timers) has done its job, and I hope the WT stays alive long enough to be mocked into oblivion rather than disappear. Besides, some are better off staying inside for many reasons, so there will be no security leaks or unexpected Facebook additions, etc. so now we will take a more modern, light-hearted and healthful approach so as not to offend JWs overmuch.
You can always tell the website owners that are ex-JWs that have, even after years, not resolved their anger issues.No JW wants to read nothing but hate and polemics.
I have never in 31 years "outed" anyone except a phony or two, and no one but me has access to my database of people. Your identity is safe.
THOSE NOW LEAVING NEED SOMETHING BETTER AND MORE POSITIVE AND MOST OF ALL, SELF-DEPRECATING OR FUNNY.
Very few ex-JW sites have any sense of humor at all, and smack of unresolved anger. JWs are not going to go there so much as they are more educated, and don't like to see all the strife you see on some sites. (That means no "angry discussion board," but personal stories and experiences rather than town lynchings of people.)
When I was doing exit-counseling under Steven Hassan as well as alone years ago, I discovered a big surprise in pre-counsel sessions with the families of the cult members: The ones who REALLY needed the help were more often the ones who hired me to get their mate/child/relative/friend out, or convert them to their beliefs. THEY were the ones I was secretly exit-counseling more than the cult member! It was so obvious, and I will be writing on that. One reason I quit doing it. Once I removed that person from the sessions (sidelining them), the person often left the cult immediately.
ARE YOU THE ONE THAT IS KEEPING YOUR (WHOEVER) in THE CULT?? YOU'D BE SURPRISED. MORE OFTEN THAN NOT they were!! So I really often deprogrammed the ones that hired me, and then most of the time the person left the cult immediately and became born-again Christians! And it was not my job to convert them, as this should NOT be the job of an exit-counselor... but rather to show them where they stepped off the road of sanity into fantasy, and show them various ways to go back and find that spot on their timeline and start their life over... thus the expression on my FreeMinds site: REINVENT YOURSELF.
Now is the time for many of you website owners to get professional help if this applies to you. Take your angry websites offline, get therapy, and reinvent yourself. Younger Witnesses will not be visiting you anymore (excepting sites that are basically news and info sites with good testimonies, like JWfacts.com, etc. which will always be great). And we all love fresh news about the old men at Bethel who operate their carnival.
Time for fresh and artistic articles, blogs and videos that are healing. Most are so negative and often written by damaged souls who have not yet had counseling on how to MOVE ON with their lives. If you are angry, perhaps you should be and may have a blog of your own to vent, but not as a freeminds resident/front page blogger. Healing takes time, and expressing your anger may be a lealing for you and some others. But for the most part, it drives away sensitive JWs who are questioning.
Regarding any of the older articles on my current site, all the URLS will change, though, as the current system has ridiculously long URLS that have ended up dropping my site ranking from #1 for decades (on the Watchtower) to God-knows-what. :-))
See you there soon if you like.
Thanks to Juan for all his hard work!
Randall Watters
and more.
...OUTLAW