by StephaneLaliberte 15 Replies latest jw experiences
Simon - You move on, it becomes less and less part of your life. You remember that you worked there, but little else.
Oddly, this reminds me of a conversation I had with a pal of mine recently.
Pal. Do you remember (insert girls name)?
Me. No. Why's that?
Pal. Well, she was your girlfriend.
Me. Was she? Oh, wait, yeah..vaguely.
Pal. (Looks at me as if I'm didlow)
I s'pose some things just get lost in the past and buried under new memories.
I
Jofi_Wofo: You're right, there are some positive things about growing up a JW:
Than, there are other things I have gained by leaving the JWs.
While I certainly appreciate the value of these assets, I still regret the "how" I got there. Like the expression: You don't need to put your hand on the stove to know that it hurts if you do.
Stephy. There are benefits from having been a Jobo.
I was an elder(tm) in the Polish congregation and learned a lot of language and customs.
This came in handy after I left because I now have half Polish grandkids (not from the Jobo Polish either). I play music and write songs with a Polish young lady. She says that it was good I learned all that being a Jobo because she finds communication with me easy as a result. That, she says, is because I understand the language structure.
See through manipulative organizations and self deception (religions, employers, etc)
Valid point; although I now trust no one apart from close family and my best mate Mark the guitarist.
@Punk:
Pal. (Looks at me as if I'm didlow)
i think you need to translate that one.
The reason for the associations to the past is imprints. The word imprint comes from Dr. Konrad Lorez in his work with ducklings. A duck is imprinted to believe that the first things it sees upon hatching is it's mother. So the stronger the emotional association to the past the stronger the recall. Time can weaken these recalls and if they are reprogrammed or reconditioned what is recalled is the new association. The research on brain plasticity offers much hope for overcomeing the strong pain of being a JW.
VE
I don't feel any need to deny my Jobo past. from the time I left I was aware of the need to eradicate Jobo thinking, and the feelings that certain things brought up in me which were due to the "teaching" , which was basically Mind Control, I needed to identify that I was being triggered, and to approach whatever it was in a new way.
I learned to get rid of any fear of our LGBT+++ friends, to no longer fear Demons, Satan etc, Armageddon etc etc, but most importantly of all, that lingering distrust of "worldly" people.
I am now emotionally free from all that nonsense, and of course mentally free in the sense that I see how very wrong it all was.
My Jobo past was as though I had lived in a nasty, twisted Authoritarian Country, and now I live in a pleasant Country, where I am free to think and say what I think to be right, and, chief of all, I am free to be the Real Me !
