How did you feel when you got baptised? Seriously.... (page 2)

berrygerry

Personally, no feeling, whatsoever.

However, an engraved memory of my poor 15-year-old child's face at her baptism - totally confusion - okay, I did it, shouldn't I feel different?

My child's damaged JW life since is one of my prime motivations.

Brujadelsol, you said something which was very similar to the way I felt. Because the baptism happened so fast! It was so anti-climatic compared to all the great build up towards it. Afterward I couldn't help feeling like I had been in some sort of assembly line process. I blamed myself for not being spiritual enough or taking time to pray, etc.

prologos

during the walk-up, the extra dive I did after the dunking, and the walk-away like being levitated. on cloud nine. ( it was not on front of an assembly audience)

Terry

I was baptized out of a sense of inevitability pressuring me from within my circle of JW friends.

In the minutes after the ceremony, I felt a profound disambiguation had occurred; a letdown and emptiness

disproving my imagination and my emotional expectation.

________________________

This was a public ceremony of commitment and dedication, but I felt It was too early in my emotional and

intellectual development to make such commitments or to "sign" an eternal contract. I was 16 years old.

The sense of LETDOWN was a reality check.

_______________________

Six years later I emerged from Federal Prison and immediately set out to Pioneer and find a good JW wife.

Driving away from the wedding ceremony, I felt the identical sense of internal FALSIFIABILITY. Why was

I doing what I was "supposed to do" rather than what my internal compass was telling me?

____________________

Apparently, I was under a delusion which said, "You must be a good person; the best person you can be EVEN IF

YOU DON'T FEEL LIKE IT."

I wish I had listened to that internal voice.

Now I realize 51 years later, that voice was MY CONSCIENCE and my actions were suffocating it into silence!

Island Man

I've heard an ex-JW once say that he felt like someone's trophy - his bible teacher's trophy. And to make matters worse, they had to dunk him twice because the first time a tiny piece of his body didn't go all the way under. What's up with that? Is Jehovah and Jesus looking down legalistically and saying: 'Oh look his nose didn't go all the way under, so that means he's technically not baptised. That's one more to be destroyed at Armageddon, mwhaa ha ha ha!'

WTWizard

I felt that I was going to be given more responsibility to joke-hova than I could reasonably handle, and that joke-hova would not approve me unless I was in a very good emotional condition (it would be idolatry). I never felt close to that thing. Now, if only Satan would have showed up to pop out one of the panels of the pool and ban them from getting me baptized under threat of destroying the whole religion and sending them to jail...

clearpoison

I felt wet, that was all. The happy feelings came afterwards when baptismal gifts were presented. Sadly some of them were related to d2d service.

CP

FadeToBlack

Big letdown. I never even did the dedication prayer that is supposed to be done before making that public declaration. Shouldn't that have been a reason to stop and ask WTF am I doing? I wish I could kick myself in the ass for being so pathetic.

I also clearly remember the dude going down the line looking for good 'how did you come into the truth' stories. He would ask a couple of basic questions and then move on down the line if your story wasn't potential Year-book material.

So many ignored warning signs...

nugget

I was struck by the number of rules and procedures to the point that rather than it being a moment of spiritual beginnings it was all about how you stood, what you wore who you were assigned to go to for the baptism.

I got baptised because I couldn't put it off any longer simple as that. God didn't speak to me and certainly he wasn't present in the baptism pool.

stuckinarut2

Good comments nugget!

I agree. My experience was just the same...

How did you feel when you got baptised? Seriously....