Does anyone else still get Armaggeddon Nightmares!! (page 2)

jgnat

Here is my Armageddon dream.

http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/38029/1.ashx

This one actually cured me. I no longer live in fear.

You know, I'm struck by people who have been on this board a while who are still embarrassed by having been sucked in by the cult. Obviously, the JW teachings are attractive to very intelligent, loving, good people. Whether you were born into it or "bought" into it, your belief was rooted in wanting to live a good life--not a materially good life, but a life that mattered and was lived "correctly." Nobody here seems stupid or especially credulous. So let's put that embarrassed stuff away, 'kay?

Dawn

Somehow that is a part of my life that I find difficult to talk one to one about.

Laney: I think this right here is the ticket to why you're still having the Armageddon dreams. I had them too - until I talked with other people about the religion, how it affected me, etc - and when I had worked it all out the dreams went away. I think that the dreams continue to plague us as it is our subconscious trying to make sense of things - once we talk through it and work it out then our subconscious goes on to other things (like pink kittens - still have no idea what that dream was about! )

So my advice to you Laney is to talk to someone about your life as a JW - and also talk with them about the doctrines - it'll help you to look at it all more objectively and help free you from it.

There is light at the end of the tunnel - although I had Armageddon dreams my entire JW life they are now gone. I have not had one in over 5 years.

TheSilence

Hi, Lainey, (hope I spelled that right)

I was raised in the organization and told my dad that I didn't believe when I was 13... and still I had these nightmares into my early 20's. Some of that, I suspect, was to due with the fact that I was still forced to go to the meetings until I was 19.

I think getting past it is a combination of time and just getting to a place where the little niggling doubts of, "maybe they are right" are absolutely gone. One or the other won't get rid of the nightmares, has to be both, I think.

The suggestion to just talk to someone about it is a great one. I'm very open about it and most people I'm close to know I used to be a jw. No, they don't completely understand how it affects you... but every once in a while you say something and see their look and you can think, "yeah, it really was a ridiculous thing to believe" and you feel better knowing you don't anymore. I find laughing about it cathartic.

Good Luck,

Jackie

lastcall

I've had bad dreams too. Well ito my 20's.

mostly in the Form of Tornados and not being able to save family who was not in the Org. (What a warped view)

But now I only have nightmares of walking back in to the KH, -- I come in late and the elders are eyeballing me.. I sit down and open my watchtower to the lesson of the day. The presiding overseer is sitting behind me.. and he sees that my Watchtower is unhighlighted! At that point I realize I'm also not wearing any pants!

Time heels it all Lainey, especially when your confidence increases> Hang in there.

LC

jgnat

You might want to give lucid dreaming a try.

http://www.dreamviews.com/whatislucid.html

Lucid dreaming could help take the terror out of your recurring nightmare.

I also found this article a good counterpoint to the lucid dreaming fans:

http://www.sawka.com/spiritwatch/limitations_in_the_utility_of_lu.htm

Special K

Hey Lainey..

I posted about this before some time back...

Yes, I was somewhat like you, bad bad dreams .

I used to wake up sceaming and crying..panic. force myself to stay awake.

Anyways, this began almost 12 years ago as I was leaving the JW's with all the struggling between my brain and my heart"...

I was taught how to do ...LUCID DREAMING... and that is what finally helped me.

I kept a dream journal and woke up and wrote things down and most importantly I learned how to re.enter my dreams and take more control of them and reframe them . to go back into the worst part of them.. Usually the part when you bolt upright in the bed..and change them.

It took some time, but I can now do that ..at will. And when I now have an Occassional nightmare I can go right back into sleep and change it.. and how it ends...

My suggestion

to you would be to investigate the Lucid dreaming technique, before you spiral into sleep deprivation

SPECIAL K

P.S. My young son suffered the same affliction for awhile...when he was around 4-5 Since we left JW's it has stopped with him.

dustrabbit

Yeah, I used to get those kind of dreams when I was a kid. But I tend to try writing some of those dreams out in the minds of some my characters. (I'm a writer.)

You know something, I wonder if Michael Jackson got those dreams...The video for "Earth Song" seemed to have a JW/Watchtower flava, if I'm not mistaken.

Justin, the ORIGINAL dustrabbit

blondie

Never had them...living with an abusive father for 17 years, 24/7 was a waking nightmare. The sound of a car driving into the driveway made me jump for about 5 years after he left.

Actually, I longed for Armageddon because I knew my father was going to drop down the nearest crevasse.

Blondie

Does anyone else still get Armaggeddon Nightmares!!

jgnat

kgfreeperson

Dawn

TheSilence

lastcall

jgnat

Special K

Special K

dustrabbit

blondie

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