Midday Vent

mrhhome

Here we go again. I know that this is a statement of the obvious, but I am wasting my time trying to have an honest discussion with my in-law Witnesses.

It is absolutely amazing. They are otherwise intelligent, rational, honest people. However if you get remotely close to a subject that requires that they evaluate their beliefs or challenge the Witness policy, they will repeatedly dodge it, twist it, or otherwise ignore it. When they cannot do so anymore, they will just shut down.

I am beginning to question whether it is even a conscious process or if it has become subconscious.

Sad. Really, really sad. Why would anyone subject themselves to an organization that screws with their mind so badly? How can anyone suspend their natural sense of morality at the demand of an organization?

mrhhome

[Deleted]

OneEyedJoe

It's all a part of the cult mind control mechanism. They're ingrained with the process, and when ultimately defeated they just can't accept the possibility that they (and by extension their religion) could be wrong because it's too scary to deal with.

It's sort of like an extreme version of what happens if you give a kid a list of 1000 chores that they need to do this year. They'll see the list as insurmountable and shut down accepting defeat before they've tried. It's definitely a subconscience mechanism, which is why it's so difficult to get around. You just have to persistently put them in this uncomfortable place, and eventually they'll begin to face it on some level. At least that's the theory I get from watching Steve Hassan's videos, but it's a slow process and I can't profess to have achieved any results yet.

label licker

My sister is seventy years old and gave her whole life to the org.(pioneered and special pioneered since she was sixteen). She could always see through the faults of the elders and not link their hypocracy and favortism to the cult's doctrinal training. I tried dropping a few little bombs her way and the first time she said I was shaking her faith and hung up. She wouldn't answer her phone for almost eight months.

Recently, I told her to show me where it reads new scrolls. I told her about all the new changes and the one about tithing. I could read her the first page and then she didn't want to hear anything negative anymore. What was negative was the letter that I was reading her and it offended her but somehow she linked the negativity back to the one that was reading it which was me. I never run down the org for then she would take it as though I was insulting her. I told her it wasn't negative what I was reading but just the four page letter from the society . I could only read the second page and she made me stop. A month later she asked me if I could send her all the governing body letters that I have been reading and if I could send her all the society's publications from when they started to now. I did. She sent me a message saying thank you for your hard work of researching but I don't think I will pursue this any further. I'm hoping she is reading them all. I even sent her the elders manual.

This is a gal who never got married and lives alone on welfare assistance. She lives on six hundred dollars per month. She has no one. She already told me that she knows my husband is a good man but she has to follow theocratic procedure. (He's df'd) This just breaks my heart how she will let me go so far in helping her like sending her money to help her out and information on this cult but then runs and hides. Her health is really poor but refuses to come and let us look after her.

I really do feel for you and I get it. Our hands are tied for the moment.

Pistoff

They will not listen to reason; I have given up on it, having run into brick walls, several times.

punkofnice

"Minds must be cleansed" (Watchtower, June 1, 1953, p. 350 par. 24). 24 In these closing days of wickedness Jehovah’s people must demonstrate holiness. They must not foul their minds with the filthy mental food on the propaganda tables of this old world, but must feed on the feast of fat things Jehovah provides. (Isa. 25:6; 28:8.) Minds must be cleansed and made over, mental circuits formed by old-world thinking and acting faded out and new ones put in according to new-world specifications. By privately studying regularly, by attending all meetings regularly, and by engaging in all features of the preaching work regularly mental circuits are deepened and such good activities become habitual, not at all the struggle they are when the mental circuits are weak and faint because used only occasionally. For ourselves and for others, make them strong!—1 Tim. 4:16.

It's indoctrination. It's propaganda. Logical fallacies. Call it what you will. It controls the minds of the R&F JWs.

I was born in and had no other life. I even find life on the outside of the cult a bit alien. I get why some stay in....comfort zone. Others of course, give in to their confirmation bias and believe whatever crap they want to believe whether it be stupid cults like islam, scientology, moonies et al.

KateWild

I am beginning to question whether it is even a conscious process or if it has become subconscious.-mrhhome

I agree with you, for many it's automatic responses. They don't realise they are not thinking for themselves. Many JWs are too worn out to do some kind of independent research, they are tied up doing their rituals. This is how the cult works. It normally takes a personal situation to cause a JW to think for themselves, and even then due to lack of education some are unable to see the reality. TTATT.

Keep going though you never know one day they may wake up.

Kate xx

stuckinarut2

I had the same sort of response from my father once.

he was going on about "how jehovah protected him from an accident in a car once, and how he looks after bros and sis etc"

i replied,"but what about those who have been killed in car accidents...didnt Jehovah want to protect them?"

His head nearly fell off as he tried to process everything!

And he is a smart person........

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