Phantom Stranger

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Posts by Phantom Stranger

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  12

  "Bring me a toga..."

  by logansrun in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  any speculation as to why ct russel requested to be wrapped in a toga on that fateful haloween night in 1916 -- his deathbed?

  could it be he felt his physical body would be raptured to heaven and that he should have "clean, pure, white" garments?.

  comments?.

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  Phantom Stranger

  hey, logansrun, you wouldn't have wanted him to take off the toga, would you?
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  41

  Just Get Over It?

  by sens in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in the last couple of days ive been reading info on the un & wts ...so have been pretty absorbed with the amount of info out there on the wts...

  anyway...it hasnt been that long since i left the wts...and a close friend of mine (never a witness) said to me ,twice now, and rather strongly again today...

  "its over, you have left, get over it...your obsessed with this, who cares, just get over it before it drives you mad...its really pathetic"

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  Phantom Stranger

  I would address it slightly differently.

  1) You're not going insane.

  2) You have the right to be angry, shocked, etc., and we'd all be worried about you if you weren't.

  3) Your friend is probably reacting to a perceived (that is, might be accurate, might not) focus on your past, to the detriment of your future. You have a whole lot of growing and learning to do to re-integrate yourself functionally into society (or if you were raised in it, integrating for the first time). We have to dedicate some hard work to moving forward. Unfortunately, the effort we dedicate to the past - reminiscing, getting angy, trying to find "even more evidence to show how wrong they are", etc., is effort we aren't putting towards our futures.

  Congratulations on taking a huge step. Always honor who you are - and keep on moving forwards.

  Phantom
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  34

  JW’s are not brain damaged, but heart damaged!

  by Joyzabel in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  ive been trying to tell my kids to be patient with the jws that they knew and with family that still are jws.

  especially when the shunning is in full force.

  i was excusing it as brain damaged because we couldnt reason with them or get through the mental block they have.

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  Phantom Stranger

  thanks for the welcome, Joy, and I'm sorry it's under these circumstances. My sympathies on your family's loss.
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  6

  Time, Meeting Attendance, School Talks, Good standing

  by CaptK in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  what happens to a persons record when one gets d'f.

  i use to attend all the meetings, give #4 talks in the school and turn in 6-10 hours in service every month.

  i was on vacation and had a relationship with a lady.

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  Phantom Stranger

  As far as techically what happens to your records, go to www.dirtclod.com and read the letters to elders from the WTS about what to do with the records after a judicial commitee.

  As far as do they forget... sorry for what you're having to deal with, dude, after a perfectly normal and human event... but yes, they do.
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  34

  JW’s are not brain damaged, but heart damaged!

  by Joyzabel in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  ive been trying to tell my kids to be patient with the jws that they knew and with family that still are jws.

  especially when the shunning is in full force.

  i was excusing it as brain damaged because we couldnt reason with them or get through the mental block they have.

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  Phantom Stranger

  Great post, BT.

  There's a school of thought that says that the opposite of love is fear - that it isn't hate, because you have to care about something an awful lot to hate it.

  I think that in this school of thought, being "heart-damaged" and being run by fears are the same thing.

  Love overcomes fear? (True love overcomes anything - ask Wesley).
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  29

  biggest WTBTS threat

  by stillajwexelder in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  sorry if there has already been a thread on this subject.

  do you think a really big threat to the wtbts is from people like me who are still witnesses and in the organization but also post on this board and have an open mind -- or do you think there are bigger threats -and if so what would they be?

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  Phantom Stranger

  My apologies - I misread the question.

  The biggest threats to retaining and augmenting membership - since the WTS exists only through retaining members - are:

  1) Negative publicity (of a sort that is not obviously angry-leaver ranting)

  2) People learning skills to succeed, to cope, to flourish, and to love without fear. The more people grow in their humanity, the less fear runs them, and the WTS attracts people by giving them a band-aid over the fear that strikes at their hearts.
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  34

  JW’s are not brain damaged, but heart damaged!

  by Joyzabel in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  ive been trying to tell my kids to be patient with the jws that they knew and with family that still are jws.

  especially when the shunning is in full force.

  i was excusing it as brain damaged because we couldnt reason with them or get through the mental block they have.

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  Phantom Stranger

  While I would hesitate to say that JW's lack all compassion, I would totally support that most of them are emotionally scarred, not mentally shut down.

  The heart rules the mind, no matter what us bald monkeys would like to believe.
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  36

  Sad again at the Service Meeting

  by Euphemism in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the service meeting on thursday was really saddening, particularly the last part, about preaching with boldness.

  it was about overcoming nervousness, shyness, etc in the ministry.. all these people gave their experiences about difficulties they had in the ministry.

  a regular pioneer (and elder's wife) admitted that she used to just pretend to ring the door bells; service is still really difficult for her, but she does it just because she feels obligated to.

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  Phantom Stranger

  They say that a majority of people would rather die than speak in public. (I think door-to-door qualifies as public speaking - hence the term Theocratic Ministry School).

  I guess the minority who would rather not die are still JW's :)
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  35

  How long do you think being a JW will affect you?

  by Adam in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i haven't been on this board for a while.

  i've been on a conservative ezboard trying to see if we can't do something about political issues.

  i've also got a new job, had to get the car fixed, been best man in a wedding, and watched the two towers on vhs.

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  Phantom Stranger

  Studies indicate that roughly half of our personality's automatic responses are formed by age 4. Another quarter, roughly, are by age 8, and twenty percent or so by age 16.

  These can be altered by continuous repetition or by significant emotional events, but barring those, 95% of how you react to the world around you has been learned by 16 or so.

  So the WTS influence in my thoughts will continue till I die. Its influence on my behavior... that's a different story. If I wasn't on this board I could say it influences my behavior very little - but I'd be lying, cause I'm here.
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  29

  biggest WTBTS threat

  by stillajwexelder in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  sorry if there has already been a thread on this subject.

  do you think a really big threat to the wtbts is from people like me who are still witnesses and in the organization but also post on this board and have an open mind -- or do you think there are bigger threats -and if so what would they be?

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  Phantom Stranger

  The only threat I can think of is people - former JW's, current JW's, or whatever - postponing joy, risk, and growth in their lives in order to be part of a group. That covers spending all your time in service or on the internet :)