New member, no longer just reader... (page 2)

mrquik

Welcome freemind; Great to be free; really free. Been out 8 yrs. Only a married daughter still in. Will be looking forward to your insight. Again, welcome aboard.

Giordano

"Geez. . . what the heck is going on out there. This is like the 6th new member is the past few days!"

My guess it's a New Year's resolution. Instead of losing a couple of pounds they are losing the WTBTS.

The Searcher

Welcome to a place where there is no fear - unlike being in a Kingdom Hall where God alone knows how many are terrorised into keeping their mouths shut!

I am in a similar situation to you; although my wife has awakened at the same time as me, we are limiting meeting attendance to as little as possible - for her family reasons. Field service is ZERO for us both.

Like you, I feel sick when I see the KM articles and the WT Study article topics - they are purely and simply being used predominantly to promote either JAY UU DOT ORG or glorify the G.B.

We've got our responses ready for any misguided Elders who think that we might discuss our private lives with them!

We're on a new road, so we'll keep our speed down until there are no obstacles in our way.

Enjoy your journey!

3rdgen

Freemind, Welcome to the community! Glad you're here.

freemindfade

For as many people are joining on here and so on, I wonder what is really going behind the scenes, how many Dubs have just up and stopped turning in time. For me it started a while ago with doing as little as possible to just get that 2 our mark, to be left alone, then i started not going out, but still just turning in the 2 hours... again to be left alone, then I thought what the hell... and just stopped all of it. I wonder if this will be a big trend in 2015, the decline...

Village Idiot

Welcome freemindfade. Hope things turn out well for you in the long run.

TerryWalstrom

A HUGE WELCOME!

You are in a weird spot and it must feel unbalancing at times.

I think of it--and have thought of it--a number of different ways. For instance. . .

Have you ever heard of some very prominent figure who was a war hero, and later it is discovered it was a lie?

How awkward is that?

What do you do with the built in respect once granted the phony war hero?

It was automatic--now--the basis for respect, admiration, and empathy is called to account!

When we awaken to the JW mirage, we see something quite like that before us.

_______________________

Except, in the case of JW's it is slightly different.

How so?

When we 'wake up' to the 'truth about the Truth' one nightmare ends as another begins.

We have discovered something about our own status!

We are like the folks who invested their life savings with Bernie Madoff who awoke to the headlines: FRAUD!

Now what?

The others don't know our worship is phony and our credentials are counterfeit.

The others in the Hall still insist Bernie is their guy!! They won't allow anybody to say he is a crook! They insist they'll eventually become extremely rich--if they JUST HANG IN THERE!

"Wait on Bernie. . ." echoes . . ."Wait on Jehovah. . "

_________________________

Should we stand up and shout, "FRAUD" along with those who know? Or, do we keep silent?

The victims continue to treat us with solidarity, camaraderie, and equal status with themselves--only as long as we keep our big mouth shut.

_____________________________________

The problem is TWOFOLD.

1. The basis for belief vanishes between us and the Governing Body ( dogma and teachings disintegrate as corrupt.) The source authority as 'channel of communication' is revealed to be a superstition like a lucky horseshoe.

2. Our identity is dissolved into a fiction of persona. We are faking it, whereas before, we were feeling it. In effect, we are forced to become what we hate: phony poseur.

_________________________

What options are before us?

A. Go along to get along

B. Make the noises of a dissident and incur penalty

C. Go covert and plant seeds as agent provocateur.

D. Live a completely bifurcated life, a secret life. Those inside, who continue to love and respect you, are loving and respecting the 'not-you' and you are loving and respecting the 'duped-them.'

______________________

There is a fallacy: SUNK COST FALLACY

It goes like this:

"I have invested SO MUCH in this _______________; if I leave now I lose everything I've put in so far!"

It is a gambler's addiction, chasing after the Big Win to offset the losses.

There is another term for it: being a LOSER.

_________________________________

The price you pay can be long, slow, painful, costly, and ruinous over time.

Or, you can take the loss up front, and walk away from the table.

There is no mechanism in place whereby a courageous, honest declaration can be made which can cause a big RETHINK, is there?

_______________________________________________

Once there was a monk named, Martin Luther. . .

________________________________________________

Once there was a young student in Tiananmen Square who faced a column of tanks. . .

_____________________________________________

The fact of the matter is a harsh and ugly one. We have, and the others have, no

model of dissidence to look toward and say to ourselves:

"He/she did it--and so can I."

____________________________________________

Yours is a life ripped apart, secretive, ambivalent, and ultimately disingenuous.

We here, on this Discussion Group, have seen thousands pass through these portals.

We are the Triage center, the emergency room, the trauma ward, and the confessional.

We are each and all different. The only commonality we share, in truth, is we truly believed with all of our hearts one of the most insidious lies ever told.

Our hearts have a jagged tear, and the temporary Jehovah-shaped hole has cried out

to be filled with all sorts of nonsense.

So, bottom line?

We welcome you. We have been you. We are you.

Keep on keepin' on--and do the best you can along the way.

We appreciate the hurt which is your daily bread.

We are privileged and humbled by your demonstration of conscious integrity and

rational choice.

Now you stand to become the change in the world you wish to see happen.

Welcome!

freemindfade

Oh I remember the SUNK COST FALLACY in school, never had much of an issue with that, the only wisp of anything left in it that I care about is being able to speak to a handful of family members. Thats pretty much it. And I don't do anything to try to show people I agree. I imagine eventually even the occasional meeting attendance will stop, thats just a favor to someone else. Even when I was convinced at first of TTATT I went through a few weeks of somatic stress, even though I was never really convinced 100% it was the truth, I just felt like my mind and body had to go through that purge. Not like I wanted to believe it, or held on to anything, basically I was a closet atheist, but it still needed to pass out of my system. Once gone, i got back to being at peace, I make no shows for anyone in my family or where I attend and I make this clear. If anything can be gained by my still being around it may be to help my spouse courageously see TTATT (this will likely never happen) or others. I had one friend who I helped cross that bridge. Now he speaks to his DF'd brother again and is unafraid to move on with his life. I'm inside the Matrix as it were, but I know about the reality and the Matrix has no hold on me outside of the one last courtesy I give one of its members... My spouse.

goingthruthemotions

i am ditto with one eyed joe...welcome.

joing this cult was the worse mistake of my life....if i could turn back time!

shalom

New member, no longer just reader...

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