Meh, my age is only off by one year actually. I'm 20. I bump it the year in any social situation because of age bias. But in any case, I'm in my third year of college, and I work as an assistant IS tech @ a hospital. Because most equate age to inexperience, the adjustment makes my job easier in that I don't have to be asked "am I sure" or something by some Doctor, resident or other staff that comes to me in order for me to give them assistance. It also tones down the "you remind me of my son"isms by a lot. Also, I'm fully aware of meaning of the "big words" that I use.
ubiquitous
JoinedPosts by ubiquitous
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26
The Emerging 'Schizophrenic' Witness
by metatron ini have a 'loyal' witness relative suffering various watchtower-related trials, who, i believe, represents an emerging.
new form of jehovah's witness.
she seems to have a sort of 'spiritual schizophrenia'.
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Jehovah's Witnesses Are Under Mind Control
by minimus inif you were to tell a witness that they were "brainwashed" or that they were "under mind control", they certainly would not rationally accept it.the reason is because witnesses cannot distinguish between mind control and "obeying the faithful and discreet slave".
it is only after a person stops exposing himself to the subtle mind controlling tactics of the watchtower that a person can see how thoroughly duped they are in their beliefs.
how might you be able to tell that you are no longer your own person, able to make your own decisions in your life?
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ubiquitous
Humans evolved as social beings. Therefore they are all highly sussceptible to group pressure. No one is immune or free of their milieu. Families, fraternal organizations, gangs, corporations, religious organizations, nations, military are all effective users of what is erroneously called "mind-control" .
This is more anti-jw propaganda. There are pressures on this forum to conform to a certain viewpoint, too.
True. I thought I was alone in this observation. Its good to see I'm not. "Mind-control" and conformity exist in every facet of human society.
Witness after Witness come here and says they have free will and they are not forced to attend meetings or to comply with any directives issued by the Society whatsoever. I believe them. When I quit meeting attendance, I was not contacted by ANY Witnesses for 9 years. Instead of forced compliance, what I experienced was disinterest and avoidance. That seems a long way from any mind control models I have studied.
True. Same here. My family and those of whom in teh cong were like family still talked to me, but given I had/have general disinterest towards many a person in my cong, it never really bothered me.
The hard facts are they do their snubbing and shunning with control, with forethought, with purpose, and of their own free will. Are they forced by the Society to do that? No! There are way too many testimonies from people who are not shunned by their Witness relatives for me to believe my relatives are forced to shun me by a book publishing business. They have a choice and they made their decision. If they wanted to speak to me there are many ways available to them to be able to do that.
VERY TRUE. I can attest to that. What annoys the hell out of me further about people is when parents get D*'d and people treat the babies/children like that too. It disgusts me actually. No matter how you slice it, it always comes down to personal choice in the end.
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Jehovah's Witnesses Are Under Mind Control
by minimus inif you were to tell a witness that they were "brainwashed" or that they were "under mind control", they certainly would not rationally accept it.the reason is because witnesses cannot distinguish between mind control and "obeying the faithful and discreet slave".
it is only after a person stops exposing himself to the subtle mind controlling tactics of the watchtower that a person can see how thoroughly duped they are in their beliefs.
how might you be able to tell that you are no longer your own person, able to make your own decisions in your life?
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ubiquitous
ne, I was just speaking for myself, out of stereotype. its my job as the current "token believer" member. :p
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The Emerging 'Schizophrenic' Witness
by metatron ini have a 'loyal' witness relative suffering various watchtower-related trials, who, i believe, represents an emerging.
new form of jehovah's witness.
she seems to have a sort of 'spiritual schizophrenia'.
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ubiquitous
Like Burma Shave or Gillette replaceable razors, the brand continues without much advertising or enthusiasm.
Despite my thoughts, I have to say, that is the funniest thing I have *ever* seen/heard the WTBTS being likened to.
My mom is the same way, she talks about all the corruption she sees in the hall, all the politics and divisions, but she keeps saying we can't stop loving Jehovah because some humans ruin the experience. She will never leave. I don't get it either.
I dunnae, its a fact... people screw stuff up... Its funny though, since I've spent a fair amount of time on both sides of this, I often wonder what it would be like were it to flounder... if any of you are Chuck Palahnuik (Author of Fight Club) fans, or if you've never heard of Chucky P. I hereby demand you read his stuff. I own and have read all his books... good stuff. anyhoo, in one of his books, "Survivor" the character was a member of a suicide-cult that had bit of a snafu. the result of which was public attention to the cult, and suicide en masse. The main char was one of the few remaining members... catalogued and visited by a social worker even... I won't spoil the book by going into the plot further. but what caught my attention was the small details...
I dunnae, one could say I'm involved in a cult inasmuch as any closed-circuit religion or organisation is a cult. whatever, its a point I digress on. but now, were the religion to collapse, firstly, you would see a steep increase in suicides. to some, the failure of the faith would mean no god, would mean that life in itself is pretty much eat/sleep/screw/die, as apposed to eat/sleep/screw/preach/die/ress... the first of whom would be the weak... the same people who would need support or come back were they to get D*d. (btw, I use * as a wildcard to refer to fellowship or association... and I use 'the weak' cuz I'm a bit of a sociopath, but thats way off topic) you figure for every person that a D* would "work" persay on, (people who don't find support groups, or people who take the proverbial kick to the head as a means fly right) these would be the same people who would more than willingly end it. thats a lot of people, enough to create a sitch where potentially every Ex-JW would need a social worker, just like in the book...
we'd all (all refering to anyone thats ever been involved in the faith) be catalogued and marked as the last of a dying subculture. there'd be more JW jokes than there are now... those who know of "the sight" (you know what I mean, and interestingly enough, you can use "the sight" to peg rightist LSD or 7thDayers) would be able to tell who was in or out... mebbe even talk to em... hours of conversations being exchanged between seconds of shamed glances. some D*d people would talk to those survivng people, some taking that ever popular high-road called "I told you so"... then you'd see more "support" groups... some congregations would stick it out, form small circuits and mini GBs... their faith combined with strength allowing them not to snuff it right there...
then you'd have people who would take to the lawsuits... massive suits bigger than any that are going on now... class action, criminal, you name it there'd be one... course there wouldn't be much left to sue anyway, given the collapse in itself would possibly kill off all the people who they'd be suing in the first place...
but who knows what would happen? this is all my take as powered by social theory TM lol
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207
Jehovah's Witnesses Are Under Mind Control
by minimus inif you were to tell a witness that they were "brainwashed" or that they were "under mind control", they certainly would not rationally accept it.the reason is because witnesses cannot distinguish between mind control and "obeying the faithful and discreet slave".
it is only after a person stops exposing himself to the subtle mind controlling tactics of the watchtower that a person can see how thoroughly duped they are in their beliefs.
how might you be able to tell that you are no longer your own person, able to make your own decisions in your life?
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ubiquitous
#1 You cannot simply miss a meeting because YOU want to. If you think otherwise, see how long it takes before you get a phonecall or visit asking where you've been
I missed more than a few meetings, still do. I haven't a phone call or visit yet. I've also caught the tail end, or blatantly slept through many a meeting the past few years, heh.
#2 If you are told one day that you cannot take ANY blood (including fractions) and if you do, you are subject to disfellowshipping but the next day, a different viewpoint comes from the "Slave" and now you can take certain blood components, you will obey the "slave" no matter what YOU think.
Dude, one of the things that I grasped as part of the whole faith was that whole selflessness thing... thats why it's called "dedication and baptism"... its supposed to be a quote "public declaration" of your selfless devotion, to god through the earthly proxy of the quote "slave."
#3 If your own flesh and blood got disfellowshipped you CANNOT talk to them as you did when they were members. Countless ones would indeed talk to their DF'd family if they got PERMISSION from the Society............Any other proofs that JW's are mind controlled???
I have 4 D*'d peeps in my familia and they/I talk, and vice versa... w/o permission from the society. I looked it up, and familial contact is pretty much a grey area from all that I've read... what I gathered from it all was limited contact within the family, as family bonds are superceded by the bonds of the faith, and still exist, even if one if "spiritually dead."
but I dunnae, given the whole negative nature of phrases such as "brainwashing" or "mind-controlled" nobody would... its up there with calling someone a racist. its hard to push a point to someone if you throw them on a defensive. mmm...my post is duplicious
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hmm...
by ubiquitous inok... first off i'd like to point out that i'm extremely transient... while this board holds my attention for this moment, i can't guaruntee that it will later on... .
my religious upbringing was that of well, none.
period... the first 13-14 years of my life were what i would call extremely agnostic... at some point x, i can't be bothered to remember, my parent's converted to being jws... and i followed suit... for a time everything was coo, got dipped and everything, had priviledges persay and then i lost interest and stopped... nihilism kicked in... fun times, really.
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ubiquitous
meh. I kinda figured as much... and given I decided to go the opposite way and all, I hardly think this be the place for me and such...I guess I'll hang around until my interest fades.
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hmm...
by ubiquitous inok... first off i'd like to point out that i'm extremely transient... while this board holds my attention for this moment, i can't guaruntee that it will later on... .
my religious upbringing was that of well, none.
period... the first 13-14 years of my life were what i would call extremely agnostic... at some point x, i can't be bothered to remember, my parent's converted to being jws... and i followed suit... for a time everything was coo, got dipped and everything, had priviledges persay and then i lost interest and stopped... nihilism kicked in... fun times, really.
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ubiquitous
ok... first off I'd like to point out that I'm extremely transient... while this board holds my attention for this moment, I can't guaruntee that it will later on...
My religious upbringing was that of well, none. Period... the first 13-14 years of my life were what I would call extremely agnostic... at some point X, I can't be bothered to remember, my parent's converted to being JWs... and I followed suit... for a time everything was coo, got dipped and everything, had priviledges persay and then I lost interest and stopped... nihilism kicked in... fun times, really.
so I've done my little homework or whatever and I checked out the sites with the "free-thought" dogmas over the years and whatnot... I say its dogma cuz these free-thoughts people speak of are just other peoples words thrown into their head... I find people finding freedom of thought in a book or on some webpage to be extremely ironic. but thats besides the point...
I'm mainly posting this because I just wanted to know, what is the point of this board? obviously the "apostafest" suggests that some, if not all of you are DF or DA or "shunned..." or whatever. so is that what this board is?