Are these simply my imagination?
Paranormal Warning
by Cold Steel 72 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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cofty
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OrphanCrow
cold steel: Are these simply my imagination? Are they reflective anomolies of light and nothing more? Or are they images of the past?
Yes. They are reflective anomalies of light.
You had mentioned negatives. Analog film is only sensitive to the visible light spectrum (unless it is specialty film such as infared sensitive). If you cannot see something with your naked eye, neither can the camera - the film only records what is in the visible light spectrum. Any anomalies that the film captures are simply the result of optics...nothing more (*except chemical processes). And the interpretation of those anomalies are influenced by the phenomena described in the link Cofty provided
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Wayward
I knew a JW lady who claimed that a necklace she bought at a yard sale was possessed. It gave her nightmares and stuff started moving around her apartment. She was known to have mental issues so I don't think anyone else really believed her.
Another older JW lady claimed to have been attacked by a demon. She blamed it on her husband having an affair and that allowed the demon into their home. Never heard THAT theory before. She said she called out 'Jehovah' and the demon ran. Wimpy demon!
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Crabby
25 percent of the people hat fall for the JW cartoons are adults with schizophrenia or some related serious metal disease. This explains all thoughts, voices and visions. The watchtower also selects as many of these people as they can, because they are easier to sucker out of their savings.
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cofty
25 percent of the people hat fall for the JW cartoons are adults with schizophrenia or some related serious metal disease - Crabby
73.9% of stats are made up.
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Crabby
So you believe in paranormal demons telling you things and chasing you in the night..............
Catholics generally no longer do exorcisms, not at least since schizophrenia was discovered
http://www.caic.org.au/jws/medical/mental.htm
The Scientific Research
Especially since the 1975 date (which was predicted to usher in God's kingdom on earth) failed, the numerous problems in the Watchtower congregations have received much mass media and scholarly attention. Most intensively studied problems include disfellowshipping, doctrinal disputes, and their recurring prophetic speculation failures. [4] Witness mental health issues have also been examined by many investigators.[5]
The writer, as a former Witness for over twenty years, was extensively involved in various administrative levels of the organization. This gave him first hand access to information relating to most social and bureaucratic aspects of the Watchtower. He has also used his decade of extensive clinical experience with Witnesses and an extensive literature review as a basis for his evaluation. Outsiders have limited access to inside information, and for this reason are forced to rely on official publications, all of which are viewed by Witnesses as quasi-inspired.[6] The literature reveals eight academic studies which explored the problem of Witness mental illness. These will be briefly reviewed by year, the oldest first.
The Rylander Study
Swedish psychiatrist Dr. Rylander investigated a sample of conscientious objectors imprisoned in Sweden. Of the 135 randomly selected cases, fully 126 were Witnesses. Of these 126, Rylander diagnosed 51 as neurotic, 42 psychotic, 32 as mentally retarded, and 5 as brain-damaged (some overlap exists because some cases were in two or more categories).[7] Diagnosis was made solely on the basis of behavior that was clearly pathological, such as irrational paranoia or severe long term depression, and not behavior that resulted from following Watchtower doctrine as non-social involvement with the non-Witnesses. Rylander also concluded from the subjects' medical records and his interviews that their pathological state was not uncommonly evident before conversion, but that the Watchtower's' influence was often detrimental to mental health, sometimes severely so.
About four percent of the eligible armed service Swedish population were judged psychologically "unfit" for military services. The corresponding figure for Witnesses was twenty-one percent, or a rate five times greater. This was very close to the same ratio found by Spencer [8] whose diagnosis of "psychotic" or "neurotic" was made on the basis of mental hospital admission screening. Few of the cases in Rylander's study were marginal Witnesses, and most were actively involved in the Watchtower. Rylander concluded that many of those he studied lacked an education, job skills, emotional stability, and quality social relations. Unsatisfactory employment records often existed because of psychological deficiencies, lack of ability or immaturity. Rylander found that Witnesses committed "...a relatively large number of small crimes and other misdemeanors which generally resulted only in a fine...three [Witnesses] have been imprisoned for stealing or harboring of stolen property, and 36 have been fined for various offenses (traffic violations, drunkenness, unlawful selling of alcohol, poaching, unlawful entering, etc.)" [9]
Neurotic symptoms commonly found in his sample included "feelings of discomfort, general anxiety, poor sleep habits, times of brooding over what they see as the meaninglessness of life, the wrongs they have suffered and the mistakes they have made." [10] Rylander noted that the Watchtower doctrine helped some adherents to explain "all of their problems in life, and has given them a satisfaction and calmness which has brought a measure of stability to their lives." [11]
He also concluded that individual Witnesses tended to be burdened with a variety of serious concerns and often joined the sect in an effort to solve their many problems. Although the results of this study are not fully applicable to today's situation, many of his conclusions are still largely true. [12] A major difference between his sample and today is that the Witnesses are now more middle-class and less socially rejected. Many Witnesses, though, especially those living in developing nations, still experience many of the same problems that Rylander reported.
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snare&racket
After negotiating the bible ...based on facts, world history, religious history, cultural history I was left very confident it was man made stories and certainly borrowed from many beliefs Systems that were wholly different from each other , involving various gods and personalities,
Before I could let go of a belief in God, I had to negotiate the issue of spirits, this seemed a difficult but important task. Then I asked myself.... What exactly have I seen? I considered the mental state and bias of the people who had told me they knew of, or had themselves seen something unexplained....... I had my answer.
I remember calling down demons and Devils etc etc in front of my JW family to prove a point. I also remember the fear I had of such spirits even as a young adult male. Now I deal with death on a regular basis, wander hospital wards at night alone and I sincerely don't fear anything. In fact one night I was walking down a dark quiet hospital corridor and the lights were automated but switching on behind me as I was walking faster than the sensors. I had a sudden realisation that took me some seconds to untangle, this was a scenario that at one time would have made me unsettled. Now... Nothing, literally nothing.
Your mind is amazing at picturing your worst fears or imagined experiences... We had our heads filled with images of dark/evil demons with sexual desires and a lust for violence, enveloped in a fog of fear and spiritual darkness. It was all Harry Potter for adults, fed to kids to keep them in line. It's mental/emotional child abuse and it's speaks volumes that most JW adults fear this b.s. and even some ex JW's. It is untrue, unhealthy and indefensible to have been indoctrinated with such lies.
Trust half what you see and nothing of what you hear. Read, research and your own knowledge will be your best protection.
Those cracks and bangs from the TV are the plastics warming and cooling, those bangs and crashes are house noises. Those taps coming on are changes in water pressures and slightly opened valves. The lights flicker everywhere for many reasons. That dark fearful feeling when you talk to a spiritualist... Will also be there for you put on a horror film..... A bunch of people in plastic masks and makeup. The issue is you and the beliefs you were raised with 😉. I reasoned away all these fears and they are all honestly gone.
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Sevan
I hear what y'all are saying. I had a very difficult childhood and was badly abused, so it's possible that some of my experiences were due to my fragile emotional state as a child.
However, let me ask y'all this: without Satan and the demons, how do you explain all the true, inhumane evil in the world? Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot? Sadistic serial killers and serial rapists? People that torture and starve innocent children and animals? Evil that is so grotesque and unfathomable. Evil that it seems impossible for a human to possess? Do you think that it is possible for humans to actually be this evil and inhumane on their own, without any demonic influence? How? Why?
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Finkelstein
Do you think that it is possible for humans to actually be this evil and inhumane on their own, without any demonic influence? How? Why?
Yes some people are apathetic and sociopathic assholes, like most of the leaders of the Watchtower Corporation.
No need for spirits or demonic influence required
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Cold Steel
OrphanCrow > Yes. They are reflective anomalies of light.
Oh, you'd be a lot of fun at a campout!
You're right, of course. Remember that famed "face" on Mars. And the pyramids? It all went away when photographed in high resolution with better light and high resolution. Still, to say the paranormal is all imagination is also problematic. Some things, like the creaking television plastics and equalizing of pressure in water pipes, are explainable phenomena. Other things aren't so easy to explain away.
The WTBTS overdoes religion and the occult and creates an atmosphere of fear and a means of control. Coming from a Protestant background, I loved scary movies, Halloween and monster magazines. We had fun. But in the WT community, it's used to terrorize. If you swapped toys with classmates, anything you brought home might be suspect. Some JWs avoid yard sales, gifts from non-believers and shun books about other cultures and beliefs.
The occult has long been used to control people, partially because there's something within all of us. As long as we can explain it we can dismiss it. But regardless of how practical we all are in the daylight, let us experience something in the dark that we can't explain and we'll all react with fear. It's hardwired into all of us. You may say here and now that you wouldn't mind being locked into an abandoned prison or asylum to spend the night, but if it came down to it, we'd probably all chicken out rather than do it. Even though no one has ever been killed by a "ghost" or demonic entity, we're all hard wired by society, religion and our imaginations to fear them. Lights can flicker, pipes can creak and bumps can all be rationalized. But let the lights go out and our rationalization goes out the window!
And no one can change that.