"I don't want to be here when that happens"

by Syme 5 Replies latest jw experiences

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  Syme

  I recall a memory from a circuit assembly almost a year ago and wanted to share it with you.

  I had already been in serious doubt (about everything, not only the wts) for over a year, yet at that period of time I conducted 2 bible studies, with some nice young fellows. At that circuit assembly, on Sunday, both studies came: one sat on my left, the other on my right. Yup, it was an “upbuilding” experience, and for a moment I thought “Hey, that’s not too bad, why worry you, you doubtful sinner?” So here I am listening to the main speech, the Public Talk by the district overseer. A man over 70, the oldest travelling overseer in my country, very respectable, but nonetheless really old-style. So he starts repeating again the thousand-times-said “evidence” that the Great tribulation is near, and the need for increased vigilance, etc.

  At that moment exactly, I had a flash, a moment of clarity, like when you see the past and the (possible) future in one scene: I imagined this man, who is a travelling overseer from the 70’s or earlier, having said SO many times that Armageddon is right before the corner this time, and I imagined myself, in 20 years from now, being 50 and listening to a 2033 district overseer saying something like: “the Great Tribulation has ALREADY started, and now it is time to flee to the mountains and follow the special instructions etc. etc.” I almost got the shivers; the thought I made that exact moment was: “I don’t want to be here when that happens”. Suddenly, the 2 bible studies that stood next to me meant nothing, and I felt a complete stranger amongst the Absurd.

  This was not my moment of “awakening” (that was earlier), but nonetheless it was a strong moment. I am pretty certain now that in a few years the WTS, in order to regain moment, will again start to elaborate on a new date (indirectly, of course), or even worse, it will state that the Great tribulation has already started in a sort, even if the ‘infidels’ do not acknowledge it, and as a result they will push the R&F to act in a more frivolous way than ever before. This may be like the last “spark” of a dying man before he passes away.
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  PaintedToeNail

  Syme-A vision of your future can be a powerful thing! It happened to me years ago when married to my ex. Thought to myself 'what will life be like when I'm 50? I'll have been married 32 years and have only an idiot for a husband'...that was the being of the end for that marriage. That divorce was one of the best things I ever did, along with divorcing myself from the WTBTS.
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  OnTheWayOut

  That is great how you projected into the future to see that the pattern would continue.

  I don't have a single moment of an awakening, but I have tried to project from what I heard at assemblies/conventions and from the Watchtower one way or another. One that particularly stands out for me was an illustration being overused about the elephant.

  I have heard Witness speakers use an illustration about elephants on how to raise and train children or how to train yourself to remain a faithful witness. Elephants have to have their spirit broken in order to start training them. They have to decide that they have no hope of breaking free by being taught helplessness. Only after they feel helpless can they learn to do as their trainer insists. Young elephants have heavy chains wrapped around a leg and attached to large stakes driven deep into the ground. No matter how much they pull and struggle, the chain won’t break and the stake won’t come up. Once they are thoroughly convinced that they can never break free, the elephant one day gives up. Once that happens, the trainer can tie the elephant with a light-weight chain and can even just tap a short stake into the ground to anchor the chain. Even though the elephant grows large and strong enough to uproot a massive tree with a fifty-inch diameter or even snap the tree in half, it feels the slightest resistance of the chain and stops pulling.

  I was pretty sure the point of the original elephant story wasn't a way to train your children by never giving in to going easy on them until their spirit is broken and they just automatically go through the motions of always doing things the JW way. I thought about the story and was pretty sure it was about "tricking" the elephant. Sure enough, the internet told me about that story and it's point:

  The saddest thing is that this story is used in fables to illustrate that the elephant could break free if it just were able to believe in itself but it limits itself by past experience. Watchtower speakers use the story to convince Witnesses that they can train themselves or their children to stop trying to break free of their chains. Witnesses can accept that their “trainers” know how to care for them and stop resisting the leadings of their elders or the Governing Body. Yes, Witnesses are told that breaking their spirit is a great step toward obedience, a desirable trait according to their “trainers.”
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  mauiboy

  Monkeys can be caught with a glass jar that has a long neck on it....long enough so that a monkey can't touch the bottom of the jar by reaching down the neck. A delectable monkey-treat --some nuts or a piece of fruit-- is dropped into the jar. It is then placed where a monkey can have access to it, and they will invariably be so engrossed in viewing, and believeing they can reach, the goodie at the bottom, they are often unaware they have been caught until the net is thrown and tied around them. So catches the J-Dub many a new 'brother' or 'sister'. If you think that may be heartless, pity the born-in.

  Kudos to all who have had the presence and sense of mind to leave.
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  Black Sheep

  I just heard a couple of 80+ Dubs telling each other they don't want to be here for the Big A and that they will be happy to come back and see their departed spouses after it's all over. This is after a lifetime of telling potential converts that it is going to happen in their lifetimes.

  Neither mentioned the elephant in the room, that the loved ones they had hoped to live forever with will be untouchable and there is no chance of a bit of leg over with their new, perfect, beautiful, bodies ....... for eternity.
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  steve2

  Oh for old JWs to wake up to TTATT would be devastating and likely soul-destroying. Yet for younger ones, it can be like an electric shock into reality. I'm so glad I got out as a young buck and made a worthwhile life for myself. I'm doing what I was led to believe would never happen:Growing old in this system. Truth be told, so did my maternal and paternal grandparents and JW parents - all sorry f*cks who aged in the organization whilst craning their gullible necks to see the new system just round the corner. All now deceased. Little wonder, on the rare occasion I see youngish JWs, I feel like screaming, "For Christ's sake, get out and get a life. Look at all the old dim-wits dying out in the organization. This is your future, suckers. Get out." Of course, my impulse control is well developed and I remain composed, secure in the knowledge I got out and have robustly survived.