It's finally over, the feeling is gone ??? how long did it take you ???

run dont walk

It's safe to say 99.9 % of us were JW's at one time and believed in it, some more , some less, but even after leaving JW land did you still hold on to certain beliefs and customs ???

When did the feeling come over you that, it is over, the JW beliefs are wrong, and HONESTLY inside your heart you felt that way and that the whole organization is a scam.

how long did it take you to completely break free after you made the decision to leave ???

For me, I left back in the late 80's early 90's, but still felt armageddon was going to come one day, still believed some teachings, just didn't believe in the people/organization anymore, now after spending the last 5 years on the internet, researching beliefs, finding this board, which answered alot of questions.

I can truly stand up and say from the bottom of my heart that the JW religion is wrong and a scam, and WHY CAN'T THE OTHER 6,000,000 PEOPLE SEE IT !

Is their any feeling inside of you, (no matter how small), that says ....... well, maybe they still could be right, or are you completely FREE from it, in your mind and your heart ???

xjw_b12

run. I am going to respond to to your thread, even though it does not contain anything to do with sex, politics, or Vincent

I am completely vested of all of those old feelings. But I don't think I would be where I am today, if it wasn't for sites like this, where it is constantly reinforced, with new evidence every week, just how rotten to the core the WTBTS is.

If they claimed that they were just a publication business, I could accept that. But to pass themselves off as the mouthpiece of Jehovah is irreprehensable

Phantom Stranger

I was there before I ever left.I was surprised to find that once I stopped going, i had no expectations of Armageddon and apparently never had. Voting, sex, accepting other's proscribed behaviors (homosexuality, etc.) was surprisingly easy.

What was hard for me was letting go of the black-and-white, righteous, conditional worldview, and the emotional habits I learned to try to deal with it. Unlearning those habits is a lifelong project. But that's life - no one gets to be an adult without hurts and doubts and such to overcome - it's not just us XJWs.

franklin J

I tend to agree with Phantom stranger. My experiences were similar. Once I stopped going to meetings and associating ( although I was raised in the "truth" and was a pioneer) it was easy to let go of the beliefs . The time did come when that happend. The problem became how to replace the "support network" of friends. It took time to replace the negative experiences (toward the end) with postive ones and new non JW friends. But it can be done, and well worth striving for.

The religious beliefs were never replaced. Oddly, I do not feel the need to replace them. I consider the JWs, just like any other religion, they are free to practice their faith as the Muslims, Jews, other Christians of this world are doing. They can no longer manipulate me. The first few years were shaky ( it is only human to have doubts) . But as I moved away from them on a new and very positve life journey; surrounded by new friends ( far more open minded and accepting) my life literally "blossomed". The JWs or their narrow beliefs are no longer a threat to me: reference the line from " TheWizard of Oz" where Glynda the Good Witch tells the Wicked
Witch " You have no power here, be gone with you , before someone drops a house on you too".

I have more fun quoting old movies than scriptures these days!

I realize how hard it is to make the break and can relate to anyone currentlly suffering through this. But a good positive mental attitude and a perseverance to succeed will help.

I discovered this board 20 years after leaving JWs and although I am new here, I have an affinity with all of you whose posts I have read. I find it a comfort to be here communicating and am reinforced in that I am not alone with these old experiences, which have now become a part of my life. Sharing these experiences has become a bond.

Look forward to hooking up with you all...

Frank

IronGland

You have no power here, be gone with you , before someone drops a house on you too

Ha! From now on im using that anytime a witness asks if im ever gonna come back.

Amazing

HI Run,It was pretty much over about six months before I walked away from the religion. It took a while, about a year, before I could have a Christmas tree again, and enjoy voting at the polling booth inside a Baptist Church. But, as time went by, I became an avid worker in supporting counter-cult ministries ... then I dropeed out of everything for a while ... didn't pray or read the Bible for three years ... then I found H20 and got into it all again ... but now I am a happy and confused Christian-agnostic-maybe-atheist-deist-who-still-has-faith kind of guy. Jim W.

Maverick

I was not a dud until my mid twenties and lasted about that long,(24 years). This board has helped me weed out bits of programming that linger. They are less and less, but every now and again someone will post a topic that hits a nerve and I'll remember some stupid dud teaching that I had not expunged. I suspect this will go on for some time. I have no more dread, I sleep the sleep of the innocent, and when I see a dud I have no fear just pity for the brain dead ding dongs! Maverick

jst2laws

Amazing,

now I am a happy and confused Christian-agnostic-maybe-atheist-deist-who-still-has-faith kind of guy.

YEP! ME TOO!

Steve

Shakita

I was fading even before I left for good....it is now almost 2 years since attending a meeting. I must admit that, although I do not miss the meetings themselves or the self righteous people and attitudes there, there is something inside that is missing. I can not put a finger on it, but there is an empty space...and empty feeling that has been there ever since. I think that it is this feeling that makes alot of inactive JW's return to the meetings. They return in hopes of filling the void that the JW life once controlled. I am determined that this never happen to me. I am hoping that one day this empty feeling will not be there...so I wait.

Besides, God has an awful lot to own up to before I can even consider wasting another precious moment of my life believing in his existence. Right now, at this very moment, there are countless atrocities happening around the world that HE chooses to turn a blind eye to. The horror stories coming out of North Korea currently are enough to question the existence of any God who has the power to end it immediately. The people who aren't starving to death, are being tortured, raped, and mutilated. It just amazes me that people don't recognize that God is just as responsible as those who commit the crimes if HE has the power to stop it and chooses to do nothing.

Sorry....went off the subject a little there.

Mrs. Shakita

Mulan

Is their any feeling inside of you, (no matter how small), that says ....... well, maybe they still could be right, or are you completely FREE from it, in your mind and your heart??

Not even a smidgen.

I held off celebrating holidays for a long time, but now I think they are so wrong, I won't let them have any hold on me at all.

I don't believe anything they teach anymore.................unless it's a minor thing..............possibly.

now I am a happy and confused Christian-agnostic-maybe-atheist-deist-who-still-has-faith kind of guy.

ditto

It's finally over, the feeling is gone ??? how long did it take you ???

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