Hello all, I love reading all of your experiences, and trials and tribulations ( isn't that very jw'ish)? While most of my life experiences have almost nothing to do with jw's, as I was never baptized and never believed( in the bible) past the 5th grade, It makes me feel good to contribute a post or two here, I tend to go off on subjects that are probably not very Jermaine to the main subject of this site. I do really enjoy all of your comments and the time and effort Simon and the other moderators spend to make this a truly inspiring site. Thanks again to the site host and moderators, but, should I stay, or should I go?
Should I stay or should I go?
by olongapo joe 7 Replies latest jw experiences
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Terry
What tools does a DUPED person have? Intellectual damage is done once you are indoctrinated.
Your emotional ties to your "spiritual family" form a bias to free thinking.
WHY should you make your life better by first making it worse?
That's the dilemma for the person who will automatically be labeled APOSTATE when they shift loyalty.
Once freed from the authority of the cult, it is a strenuous self-rehabiliation which comes next--as mentioned--with damaged thinking mechanism still in place.
The same mind you had (which got you into Jehovah's Witnesses) is still in place!
You aren't really smarter once you see how you've been duped!
The frying pan-into-the fire scenario must be avoided.
On the rebound, a "believer personality" often bounces into yet another form of bondage.
The abused talks about their own vulnerability aloud. It is like a wounded animal in the forest. The predator smells the meal!
Let's face the facts.
If you are an alcoholic, for example, you cannot drink. Period.
All you can do is take it one day at a time--WITHOUT resorting to alcohol to solve the real internal problems.
Now, apply that same principle to RELIGIOUS ADDICTION.
If you are a GOD-a-HOLIC, you cannot have religious affiliation. Why? because you'll be addicted to HAVING SOMEBODY TELL YOU WHAT TO DO, HOW TO THINK and DEMAND LOYALTY and SERVITUDE from you again.
The Post Traumatic Apostate Syndrome can be described this way.
Whatever mindset you are running away from you adopt again, but in another form.
WHERE IS THE HEALING PERIOD?
How do you suddenly get your rational mind back?
Well, you don't.
People don't become addicts if they are thinking clearly.
People who are healthy don't resort to mind-altering "solutions" because these choices aren't answers.
What is the worst mistake you can make?
FAILURE TO EXAMINE YOUR PREMISES!
Why not set aside a full year completely away from any organization connected with religion?
Investigate slowly. Gain confidence. Get your mind back. Don't talk to people (other than therapists) about your vulnerability.
BEGIN TO QUESTION EVERYTHING.
(What? Why would I question everything?)
You see? Now you're getting it!
Don't take anything for face value. NOTHING.
Test, question, research, and investigate every single premise you hold to be true.
IS THERE AN ABSOLUTE in your life?
Be assured it is your demon!
The one thing you will never question is the thing that is destroying you from inside.
God?
The Bible?
Truth?
Those things can tear you apart. (They probably already did and you won't admit it).
Avoid remaining in that one little box of madness: the Post Traumatic Apostate Syndrome is real.
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ducatijoe
Most of us here are now enjoying true freedom! What you do is totally up to you.
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MarkofCane
(What? Why would I question everything?)
You see? Now you're getting it!
Don't take anything for face value. NOTHING.
Test, question, research, and investigate every single premise you hold to be true.
IS THERE AN ABSOLUTE in your life?
Be assured it is your demon!
The one thing you will never question is the thing that is destroying you from inside.Well put. This was my strategy as well, had to start from nothing. Every preconceived idea that was taught to me as a child, that I believe to be true had to be reexamined.
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tiki
Have to respond to Terry's erudite post. I too have come to the realization that being in bondage to that religion parallels addiction. And my observation is that people attracted to it typically have addictive personalities. Once free and it does take effort to resist the indoctrination hammered into your head for years, you change. But if you have the religion addiction you can easily turn to another one. Case in point my husband. He was baptized but never wholly accepted the rhetoric. He never wanted to be a ms or elder which was a big attraction for me...And he fearlessly stood by his take on things. Now though he is and has been for quite some time hooked on Herbert Armstrong and the Philadelphia church of God..in fact at one time he announced to me that we were going to join it. He reads all their stuff and wants me to send them money...whenever he's into studying their stuff he gets into a monstrous bearlike attitude and I am subjected to his angry frustrations....he thinks I am a godless lost cause...I have read some of the stuff to mollify him, but I see nothing more than another man or group of men trying to Lord it over people and run their lives....and seriously I'd sooner go back to a kh than get mixed up with those maniacs. So there we have the classic example of what Terry describes.
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Iown Mylife
Thank you Terry!!!! And thanks to OP
Marina
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Terry
Hard to believe, but it took me from 1979 to about 1995 to finally break my addiction to Watchtower thinking patterns.
I had time to kill in the local Public Library and I wandered into the Philosophy section.
Well, I had zero interest in philosophy. However . . .
I saw a book whose author I recognized and whom I admired.
Mortimer J. Adler had been the fellow behind the Encyclopedia Britannica volumes of THE GREAT BOOKS of the WESTERN WORLD that I adored so much!
Adler had also written, HOW TO READ A BOOK which proved invaluable.So, I thought to myself--let me see what Adler has to say behind this intriguing title:
10 PHILOSOPHICAL MISTAKES
I read the entire book in one hour and immediately went to a bookstore a bought a personal copy for myself!
I re-read it and took notes.
I was on fire!
That book started me on a process of rooting out the philosophical errors buried deep in Watchtower teaching which I would never have detected on my own (without Adler's excellent ideas and concepts stirring in my brain.)
From that moment on, I've been scrubbing my brain of every trace of indoctrination. fallacious reasoning, ideology and false premises.
I highly recommend this book to anybody who has been an intellectual victim of a group such as Jehovah's Witnesses.
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Tricked
Thank you Terry. I now have another book to add to my must-read list.
