The last few weeks of meetings for me were pure hell. I got a cold sweat sometimes and just sat there fantasizing about running forest gump style out of the Kingdom Hall. I was getting "encouraged" to comment more too and I just physically could not audibly promote that crap in public anymore. For a while my comments were totally sarcastic but I couldnt even keep that up. I felt physically sick to be at the meetings.
GBL
Did you ever want to just 'FOREST GUMP' it out of the Kingdom Hall?
by GetBusyLiving 28 Replies latest jw friends
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GetBusyLiving
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upside/down
Well.... Momma always said....life is like a box of chocolates...
u/d (of the always gets the worst one in the box class)
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kid-A
my old techniques for escaping the hall during the meetings
1) sneak downstairs and hang out in the library during the watchtower and read a book I had snuck in my coat pocket
2) sneak out the back door of the hall and walk a block down the street to the donut shop and sneak back in during the closing song
I got so good at this during my final years at home I think I only heard 5 % of what was actually said during the meetings. They really should
have installed alarms on those back doors!
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Preston
Did you ever want to just 'FOREST GUMP' it out of the Kingdom Hall?
No, but I did want to ride a boat to Fiji.
- Preston
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lola28
Yes, I went to meeting last night and during the school my heart began to beat really fast, I felt like i was going to be sick. I got up and went outside for a few minutes. We have to back rooms one for the back school and another for moms with small children. I spent the remainder of the meeting in that room with the lights off. Thank God on one bothered me.
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tetrapod.sapien
ya, the last few months were hell for me too. what a waste that hall was hey? so many bright young kids, all zombie-like.
i remember laughing out loud at stuff, and feeling really really uncomfortable. one of my favorite things was to not sing during the songs, and just listen to the other cult members sing. and keeping my eyes open during the prayers, and just kind of watching everyone with their heads bowed, eyes closed, and swaying. just the thought that these were all people like me, standing there thinking that they were actually talking with god. made a shiver go up my spine.
for a couple of months before i stopped, my wife knew i was an atheist, but thought that my going would help me change my ways. poor thing.
after a while, like you, i just couldn't take it. people would come up to me and ask me "how i was?", all sincere like, because of poor attendance. in the last month, i would say with a big sincere smile that "i have never been better", while giving their hand a big shake. they all looked at me like, "are you kidding? how can you be and hardly come to any meetings". i had one freind, you know who he is, who really could tell that something was up, and actually said in reply to me: "that's scary man." LOL
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sweet tee
Sounds like a panic attack. Maybe your doctor can write a note to the boe and have you excused due to health concerns !
Tam
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greendawn
No because by that time I was only attending the kh once a month and never for TMS and fs, i did a slow fade and wasn't really contributing anything to the dubs.
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damselfly
What follows is a completely true story and although I am not one of the girls involved I wish I had been.
One night during the TMS meeting at my old KH, 2 teenage girls got up within 10 mins of each other "to use the washroom". They went into the basement and out the backdoor where their waiting "wordly" boyfriends picked them up in a car and whisked them away into the night. By the end of the meeting their parents had no idea where they were until they got home and read the notes that had been left for them to read, explaining that they no longer wanted any part of the religion and that they were not coming home. Their DA letters were waiting as well.
For weeks afterward the doors entering and exiting the hall were both locked and guarded during all meetings by young MS's and elders. There was also a lot of nervous peeking out the windows everytime a car was heard to drive by.
A bit like locking the barn door after the horses had been stolen if you ask me.
Damselfly........Run Forrest Run!!!!!
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GetBusyLiving
Hey Tetra, I have a really good idea of who said that to you.
I think what was really getting to me was.. have you ever seen a video of a brutal cult meeting, like say the Moonies or the Branch Davidian video statement? It was starting to feel that way for me at the Kingdom Hall. Just as freaky. Everything about everything in the hall felt really foreign and strange somehow, even though I'd been a witness my whole life.
GBL