by freedom96 17 Replies latest jw friends
It's definitely a process. Very few can just wake up one morning, and walk away from it with no effects. It still is part of what made you what you are, so you have to decide what baggage to take with you, and what you leave behind. It's not an easy process, especially if it's all you've ever known.
Coffee
It took me 24 years and three months (that was until I got a copy of Crisis of Conscience)
I knew JW's were not truth back in 1974 when I left. I was free from it all after 1995 when I researched theism. All my anxieties and all my self consciousness left right there. I could see with a conscious clarity and it all made sense and I could explain it all in a rational way. That also ended any search for truth and it ended any guilt I had brought with me. I am so much better off. GaryB
It took me about a year of studing,i realized that there were to many inconsitincies in there teachings.There were also way to many fanatics,that had no intrest in answering logical questions.
So I say to them in a nice way,all religions are the same,and humans need to believe in something,but they all lead down the same road of hypocracy.
Tron
for me the doubts that I had for years before I left never insinuated to me that it was not the 'truth'. It never occurred to me that i would ever leave under any circumstances. But when it all came down to that one fateful night in the room with the elders(and it was not even MY problem--it was someone elses!) it was swift and sure. It took me about 3 months to realize what had happened, in retrospect it was like getting a limb cut off. I felt no pain for a few weeks then the phantom limb pain kicked in and i was like 'whoa it is not the 'truth'!' So it happened quickly, instantly. But it took me a few weeks to learn to live with it and understand what it meant for me.
and I never looked back and have never once doubted my leaving or that they are a bunch of liars.
Ravyn
Hey Inq,
What do you mean by this statement? I don't understand what this means, sounds interesting.
I felt guilt/fear before I clicked the link (European Commission of Human Rights), after I clicked the link, It wasn't guilt that I was feeling. I was angry/upset.
Hey Latin...
*****Hey Inq,
What do you mean by this statement? I don't understand what this means, sounds interesting.
I felt guilt/fear before I clicked the link (European Commission of Human Rights), after I clicked the link, It wasn't guilt that I was feeling. I was angry/upset.***** When I started doing research I was still terrified of stumbling upon "apostate" material and though that I might implode on contact... lol... I felt guilty because of that fear, and that I was researching outside of WT accepted perameters... What was really strange was that I was investigating the chronology... I was sure the WT was right and everyone else was wrong and I was trying to corroborate the WT's findings... lol... I was such a dub....imagine... trying to find "outside" proof. In my search a link to the European Commission of Human Rights came up. I couldn't justify not clicking it, it seemed rather innocuous at the time, but I had a gut "feeling". I clicked the link anyways and found I didn't implode on contact... which was a relief, but when I read the article... my life changed that very moment... I woke up from my WT induced fog and now faced the possibility that I had been duped into wasting nearly 10 years of my life for something that meant nothing.... it was extremely upsetting... and I was angry (mostly at myself) for being 1. being so darned stupid! 2. being manipulated...3. wasting my life... Hope that clarifies things for you Inq edited to add a comment
The first 10 years I just went to the meetings because of my mother. Hey I was only a kid.
The next 10 it was because of friendships. We had a great many youths in our area and we became life long friends
The next 10, I guess you would say that I was attending, but not really there. They viewed me as being too materialistic. I purchased my first home in 1975!
Then I decided reach out and became an elder. Five years of Elders Meeting and anyone with any sense of decency will start to question many aspects of the "Truth". I resigned as an elder and read the Bible for a second and third time. The rest is a completely different topic.
