Glad this one resurfaced. Gonna read it now!
Phae
i cannot take credit for any of the gems below but i did want to polish and organize them.
much of the information was borrowed from this thread.
if you can come up with any more, please post them.. the bible does not ban birthdays.
Glad this one resurfaced. Gonna read it now!
Phae
i was a little too honest with a super close friend who is one of the most important people in my life.
my mistake.
she talked to an elder about my doubts...i know she had my best interests in mind and i hold nothing against her.
Ah, sweet noonehome,
Welcome... to your life.
You are officially outside the box now, no matter how much you want to stay or pretend to salvage your unfortunately conditional relationships.
What they all say above.
So much good input here for you to sort through. This is an amazing resource and I'm so glad you have access to at this fork in the road. So many of us didn't have this kind of support when we awakened.
That people keep waking up in this organazation to face these kinds of heart wrenching decisions mentally and emotionally is astounding and a testimony to so much humanly *wrong* in that organization when someone begins to truly exercise their free will... to lose so much.
I understand. I have walked this journey and still do. I have friends and family who are hardcore JWs and I tread carefully around them just to keep our relationships alive. I pay a high price. So will you. So does everyone.
Married to a believer,
Phae
yes, it's that time of year to recognize that southern belle of the great continent of africa, our own loubelle!.
may you have a wonderful birthday and know that you are treasured by myself and many others here.. .
Happy Birthday Loubelle!
Don't lose your head celebrating, now.
Phae
so manipulaitve.
.
http://www.printcentralandsigns.com/jwtalks/covisits/sinutko%20charles%20-%20is%20it%20proper%20to%20have%20doubts.mp3.
Not going to listen, but I remember my parents had a memorial talk of his on cassette that was circulating (in the 80s). He must be a good speaker, manipulative and all... is he Australian (if he's the same speaker I'm thinking of)?
Phae
today i had some of my worst experiences.
i saw a jw group walking on preaching.
one of them knows me well, we share a lot of week-end on rbc.. my first reaction was rage and nerves.
I remember my adrenaline shot up on seeing some JWs going d2d on my street some time ago while I was in my yard doing yardwork.
I began having pancky flashbacks and felt sorry for them at the same time, while hoping they wouldn't approach me in my yard (they didn't, they were across the street).
Still, the familiarity all comes flooding back, mixed with compassion toward them, that they are captives of a concept, many reluctantly doing what goes against their nature so they can please God (men) and not be held accountable and bloodguilty for not preaching publicly.
I want to run as far away as I can and save them from the pointlessness of it all at the same time.
Phae
snapper creek (miami, fl) congregation, had 2 pioneers (female), partake at the memorial for the first time.
one is 20 years old, the other 23.. the gt delayed again!!
!.
I'm very interested to see this partakers movement growing in congregations across the world. Don't know if it's related to that anointedjw site, which has claimed to be promoting the Urantia book ideas, with most visitors unaware.
The growing number of partakers is a fun anomaly to see how the FDS® will publicly handle what they can't control.
Phae
i was 13yo and largely clueless to what was going on.
i think i remember hearing something about an apostate being weeded out of bethel but really couldn't have cared less.
i didn't start getting zealous until a couple of years later.. .
I was 8 as well and never heard anything about it until I found Freeminds on the Internet in my 20s. And what a very juicy story it was indeed!
Reading CoC shortly after changed my life forever.
I was too young to understand the KM announcement and don't remember any discussion around it in my family or JW friends. I think I was just sheltered from such things, if they did occur.
Phae
what are the positives in your life since leaving jws?
mine would be a healthier lifestyle mentally and physically.
i'm free to do what i want and can make my own decisions, is this good for me will it help me or could it hurt someone else?
what are the positives in your life since leaving JWs?
That's just a few off the top of my head.
Phae
why are jws so afraid of apostates?
their view of apostates seems to be out of the realm of the ordinary, the natural.
its as if the words of apostates are supernatual or spiritistic as if apostates are some kind of jedi knights who can slightly wave their hands or twitch their eyes and bring one under a spell.
as if apostates are some kind of Jedi Knights who can slightly wave their hands or twitch their eyes and bring one under a spell. There really is some kind of spooky, demonic, supernatural connotation to the word among JWs. I guess the org has created that connotation purposefully.
As a virtually born-in, and highly sensitive and suggestible person, much of the internalized fear I had about "apostates" due to JW programming was irrational, exaggerated and overblown. Apostates are categorically viewed as much worse than "worldlings" and even DF'd ones that may come back to the fold and often tools of Satan, who most likely has possessed such ones.
When I first faded in my 20s, I made email contact with a well-known xjw on the other side of the world known for going on TV to talk about JWs as a "cult", shaking in my boots as I hit the send button. The deep ingrained fear I felt made me feel vulnerable and unprotected should the ex decide to *do something* (I don't know what, but the fear was palpable, and it was only after a few email exchanges that I realized this "horrible" person was as normal as my next door neighbor).
I felt the same fear on meeting with an ex-JW, former bethelite woman in-person for the first who ran a xjw support group - who was swept out of bethel around the Ray Franz fiasco. We had a good chat for a couple of hours and I felt a whole new shift in perspective.
Nothing bad happened to me in either case (why should it?), except that I learned my first real-life lessons about people, life, and the myopic view the JW ORG has programmed into the unfortunate children in its culture who have no other choice but to accept what is told to them by the adults in charge.
I don't know why I suddenly grew the courage to question things, but I'm glad I did. So many others cannot even go there in their own minds. I broke out of the JW box and can never go back in.
Phae
ever since reading about dmt and hearing people discuss it, my new post-jw open mind wants to experience it.
anyone here tried it or feels the same?.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ciqzhzax4ro.
Always curious.
Phae