Did you AWAKEN from the JWs by yourself?

by cultBgone 65 Replies latest jw friends

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  rebel8

  People telling me such things as we actually evolved and the flood is not real was the main thing. I was not allowed to be exposed to any disconfirming information, and was required to leave the room when such concepts were taught in school. Had no one ever told me that, I wouldn't have known those fundamental things were false.

  I was always skeptical and had a hard time believing the fairy tales, but I actually believed evolution was obviously false and the flood was obviously true, until others told me otherwise.
• 

  no lies please

  Believe it or not my awakening started from a casual reading of Matthew 24:45-47. And it struck me in a way that it never had before. I read it again and again. And from that point on I never believed the Watchtower's explanation. That lead me to do more and more research on the internet.
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  Finkelstein

  Back in the early 1980's there was no Inter-Net so things that helped myself was some really stupid doctrines like

  ....... no beards for men even though god made men with beards

  ...... an Elder in my Hall came back from Bethel and said something very unsuspecting " Aww its just a publishing house "

  That stuck with me for awhile.

  ...... 1975 and the deliberately corrupt and pretentious calculation of 6000 years of mankind's existence

  ...... the WTS was obviously involved in selling their products with a large financial mark up in

  set pricing of their products. ???

  .......... there are more, but this is a short list....
• 

  Apognophos

  Though I didn't learn TTATT by myself -- I have JWfacts to thank for showing me the information that really showed it couldn't be the truth -- I did have an epiphany a year before that, which, looking back, must have been when I first "awakened". I had come across a new word. It's always a major event in my life when I see an unfamiliar word because I am a language fanatic. I saw someone describing his religion as "Jesusism"; I just had to look that word up. Sure enough, as one would logically guess, it means "following the teachings of Jesus only, not any additional writings by Paul or other later religious leaders".

  Suddenly it struck me: it was entirely possible for me to live an upright life without the religion's imposed morality, by just following Jesus' words, and what's more, this meant that the organization was the modern-day Pharisee class! They had added a bunch of oral laws onto the original, simple teachings. It was all so clear that they were burdening their followers unnecessarily. I immediately felt a huge load lifted from my shoulders.

  I didn't yet know any good arguments against Watchtower doctrines, nor did I realize for a while longer that "Jesus' sayings" are difficult to attribute reliably to Jesus, and many of his sayings probably were inserted retroactively by later Christians or came from earlier rabbinical sources. But just looking up the word "Jesusist", and learning of a concept that I didn't have any clue existed before then, was a huge step in seeing a difference between the words of the Society and the word of God.
• 

  stuckinarut2

  This is one of the BEST threads ever!

  The heartfelt, candid and sincere comments from our fellow forum members is very touching, and appreciated.

  So many of us have been hurt badly by this organization that dresses itself up as "The Truth"!

  However, simply expressing our stories and thoughts here is very much a part of "healing and moving on".

  Yes, we have been "awakened" indeed.....
• 

  BeFree

  I'm still not fully awaken...But I started to open my eyes when I had to move back in with my mum and returned back to my original congregation about 7 families had moved out (there were issues in the cong) and I didn't feel right being there. I told myself it will all be dealt with, it was 1 montth before convention so I was trying my best to follow and do what I know is the norm -meeting and ministry.. During the August convention all I felt was guilt ( the previous year I was reproved) the GB member was there but I didn't feel any other different just the same things over and over again. I kept trying to get myself to focus listen the 'time is near'- I sat next to two pioneer sisters who were beaming with joy over the whole thing and I was just unmoved.

  It wasn't until after the convention I went out for a meal with 3 of my first friends I met when I started studying and it was all revealed 2 had stopped coming to meetings and one was on her way out too- we cried about the whole thing told ourselves how we regretted getting baptised because if it was true we may have still gotten a chance of ressurection.

  So beginning of Sept I stopped regularly attending meeting I havent been to a meeting since October- I had in my mind maybe I will return next year or whenever if it isn't 'too late' because I couldn't see myself joining any other religion. I've started doing some research and right now I can't believe what I've gotten myself into, I'm trying to fade out completely but it's hard as my mum attends regularly and I live in close proximity to the Hall.

  But soon I will be gone and I can't wait!
• 

  sparrowdown

  I had a string of "wake -up calls", involving a terrible, horrible BOE on a witch hunt, and a handsy douchebag, details of which still haunt me to this day.

  Needless to say I have severe elder issues now.
• 

  Caedes

  I'm not sure I awoke as I never believed any of it. I was about 6 when I realised that my parents stories had big plot holes. I remember my primary school teacher talking about the fact that different people had different opinions about how we got here. She explained that some people believe that god created us and that other people believed we evolved and she said that she couldn't see why god couldn't use evolution. Obviously I am sure she said it rather more simply than that but that was what I remember.

  That immediately made more sense than the much more dogmatic approach my parents had. I could ask questions and get an answer rather than a clip around the ear.

  It took several years after that before I realised that I didn't believe in god either and that happened because of the dismissive way my parents treated other superstition. My parents liked to walk under ladders etc to prove they didn't believe in superstitions, I quickly came to realise that their own superstitions were just as easily dismissed.

  So i would say that I didn't awaken myself, the JWs woke me up by using inferior reasoning that was easily refuted.
• 

  Vidiot

  I also started waking up on my own while still in; the older I got, the less and less WT info would add up, or they conflicted which what I saw and heard with my own eyes and ears.

  I didn't really start investigating the TATT online until I'd been faded for a while and felt I had little left to lose, and even then, it was to seek confirmation of what I'd already concluded, more than anything else.
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  Mr. Self-Destruct

  I wIle up due to field service. There those house we went into in which the man used to go to the witness meetings for some time. Then he started talking about how he found out about the false end of the world predictions. I was surprised because I didn't know about this. And the brother I was with didn't say he was wrong, he was trying to justify why the watchtower predicted the end of the world. So I couldn't believe and so I did what most JW's are scared of, searched the Internet. Once I found out about morthAnd more then it became clear to me that this is not the truth as I was raised to believe.

  So people, when witnesses come knocking at your door, confront them about this because in this day and age of technology, most youngsters have internet so who knows if they'll be willing to search like I did.