That’s how my grand mother responded when all of our family members came out of JW organization, either by disassociation or by disfellowshipping.
When we all started studying with JWs, my grandmother too was there, but she stopped the study when the discussion over the dead happened. She told the study conductor: “I am convinced that there is only life, but no death. Because when my husband died of heart attack, I was not shaken by the incident. I knew that he was a good man, and he must be in some good place somewhere. And he confirmed in a special way understandable to me that he is in a better place, and said he would not communicate with me again. When I asked why others do not communicate similarly with their beloved ones left on the earth, he said all souls try to communicate with their loved ones, but in vain, because the bereaved are sad and would normally be weeping and wailing, hence mentally disturbed over the death, hence the spirit-to-spirit communication is not possible.”
At this point the study conductor said: “They are evil spirits impersonating as the dead to mislead people about the real condition of the dead.”
This was too much for my grandmother! She retorted: “I know my husband—in whichever condition or realm he is in, he is what he is. No one can successfully impersonate my husband. Why should evil spirits try to say exactly the same thing Jesus too declared about the real condition of the dead: “He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.” (Luke 20:38) If people do not continue to live after their physical death, why did Jesus declare people like Abraham, Jacob and Isaac are still “alive”?
The study conductor told her: “It only means they are alive in God’s memory till the time they are actually resurrected. This ties in with what Ezekiel 18:4 too says: “the soul that sins it itself will die.”
She said: “If that is what Jesus really wanted to convey, he would DEFINITELY have rephrased his statement rather than waiting over 2000 years for JWs to appear on the world scene and to capture the real meaning of what he said. When Jesus uses the word ALIVE, it requires no interpretation, and more importantly you cannot interpret it as NON-EXISTENT—just opposite of what Jesus said. Jesus would not say anything which requires an additional input to be understood. His YES never means NO (Mathew 5:37) And Ezekiel 18:4 is no support at all. It only means, conversely, the soul that doesn’t sin will not die—yet we see everyone dying. It is like saying: The student that fails goes out of the school, yet we see every student going out of school at some point in time! If you take ALIVE as NON-EXISTENT, there is no guarantee that you would understand other deeper things of the Bible rightly. Hence I am dropping my studying with you. (Then to us she said:) If any one wishes to continue studying with the Witnesses, you are free to do so. But I am sure that one day you all will have your disillusionment.”
She was correct! We all had our disillusionment at various points of time, with various points of disagreement with JWs. I envy my grandmother, for she did not have to make a U-turn like us after travelling too far with JWs!