Seduction, psychosis and radicalisation

by Half banana 11 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Half banana

  The JW delusion is a psychosis i.e. the holding on to a belief irrespective of sound evidence to the contrary.

  It has everything to do with the indulgent pleasure of embracing an all encompassing idea which promises to resolve every human frailty and inconvenience. It is a panacea, a short cut to gaining perpetual bliss. If you haven’t got much in this world and it doesn’t look like you are going anywhere then the JW paradise could be very seductive. With little to lose, you might think you have everything to gain.
  

  It is the very act of grasping and holding on to this concept, believing it to be an absolute certainty, against the odds; which yields the emotional security JWs desire. It is the reason why even the slightest counter information will raise the hackles in the believer, not because it intellectually challenges the truthfulness of the JW dogma but because it challenges the fundamental emotional security of the individual. Truth and evidence are irrelevant to this state of mind. It is too late if the believer has already been ‘programmed’ by the WT propaganda by participating in the cult-affirming rituals of listening to the elders and obeying the rules with like-minded worshippers. The mind and heart have been radicalised.

  The big question is how can JWs or for that matter any other religious person be de-radicalised?
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  Xanthippe

  Only when our emotional security has been seriously disturbed. When someone suffers at the hands of elders who don't give a damn or becomes ill through slaving away pioneering etc then the comfort zone starts to crumble and we start to look outside of it for explanations.
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  Half banana

  A rational reply Xanthippe but are you suggesting that it can only happen by the chance of disillusionment from within the org or conggregation? Is it not possible to penetrate the emotional anchorage any other way?
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  Xanthippe

  It depends on the individual of course. If the person isn't too paranoid you can use your familial attachment or friendship to show genuine concern and gently mention the doctrinal problems that may have woken you up. If the person is totally brainwashed into believing you are just a bad person with evil motives their perception of you taints everything you say or do.
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  punkofnice

  The big question is how can JWs or for that matter any other religious person be de-radicalised?

  By themselves waking up and wanting to.
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  Half banana

  But Punky in the normal run of things a sleeping person can be woken from their slumbers?

  @ Xanthippe the secondary question is how do you then present yourself as an ex JW to a believing JW without the taint of devil's agent?

  I'l be speaking or attempting to speak to my Watchtower zombie son today to see if he wants to come to a family gathering. When we meet, which is very rarely (twice in the last six years) we get on like a house on fire as we always have done...but to be known by the congregation as a witness who consorts with exJW family is a punishable no-no.
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  punkofnice

  Half nana - But Punky in the normal run of things a sleeping person can be woken from their slumbers?

  This is a different kind of sleep, it's a willful sleep in many ways.....kind of like a sleep induced by powerful drugs. Probably not a great example but ya know.

  I reckon and I don't say I'm totally correct, that the kind of delusion a JW or cult member is in is a powerful one that feed into their very desires. Why would they want to wake up?

  I agree that a certain amount of activism will wake a few up. Case in point Steven Hassan. there...I just defeated my own argument .....
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  freemindfade

  Spot on observation.

  It's hard. I could be wrong but I think the deradicalization has to start within the person. Maybe not 100% of the time, but there are plenty of deradocalizing external things, only when the person has an internal sit down with themselves and has the courage to possibly sacrafice comforting lies for stark reality will they start taking the jw goggles off.
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  Heaven

  I think it's larger than the JW's, applying to all religious belief.

  How can one be awakened? Finding that particular person's personal stimuli (if you will) that reaches through the barrier they've erected to get at the heart of what matters most for them.

  Sometimes it takes years of planting seeds. Sometimes there is suddenly an 'ah-hah' moment for them.

  When you read about the awakening factors of those of us on this board, some are similar, some are different.

  But it can happen.
  
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  done4good

  Xanthippe - Only when our emotional security has been seriously disturbed. When someone suffers at the hands of elders who don't give a damn or becomes ill through slaving away pioneering etc then the comfort zone starts to crumble and we start to look outside of it for explanations.

  That is precisely it. Stable and intelligent folks generally don't make good converts to JW, however already stable and intelligent JWs also don't see the need to leave. They have long since learned to rationalize what they perceive as logical inconsistencies, and injustices, so they do not see the need to investigate further. It takes something to take them out of that comfort zone to see the light.
  

  d4g