Posts by Sail Away

24

The speed with which I exited!!

by joe134cd in

i was just thinking at how quickly the process was from pimi - pimo - pomo.

i must of spent about 10 years trudging along in the organization very unhappily.

but from the initial stages of learning ttatt to physically walking out the door the process took about 18 months.

Sail Away

I was all in for 42 years from age 10 until age 52. Tremendous cognitive dissonance nearly killed me-- outpatient hospitalization for severe recurrent clinical depression and PTSD and an emergency hospitalization for toxicity from prescription over medication in less than six month's time.

Walked out of a Service Meeting knowing I had hit the wall and just couldn't do it any more.

Spent six weeks on my couch thinking through my doctrinal issues and unjust treatment of friends and family through the years. I didn't talk about it with anyone, as I didn't want to be influenced. I wanted it to be my decision. Got up and told my 30-years-faded husband, DF'd son and daughter who walked away at age 17 that I wasn't going to be a witness anymore. Still a believer; just done. I wasn't going to shun my son. Case closed.

Took my son's former MIL to the District Assembly as promised. Laughed at the whole 'the feet in Daniel's dream image mean nothing' stupidity ( I had called bullsh*t on the overlapping generation crap the year before.) and thought, "These are bobbled headed Stepford Wives."

Two weeks later served the substitute C.O. and his wife lunch, but didn't go to the meetings.

Read The God Delusion (recommended by hubby), Crisis of Conscience and JWfacts in one week's time. The Internet sealed the deal.

From believer to POMO in three month's time from when I walked out of the Service Meeting until I knew it was a complete lie and a cult.

Resigned a few years later when I couldn't tolerate being stalked by the local small town JWs any more. Threatened to sue if they came on my property or announced my name from the platform. Not a peep since, and I'm not being shunned (yet).

At this point I simply don't care. 6.5 years out, happy and free!

Diane

45

November Is The Cruelest Month

by JRK in

jw
friends

i have been going through old papers and photographs since my mother passed away.

it has reminded me of some of the reasons that i really hate november.

this year has added to it obviously.. thirty-four years ago, my father passed away in early november.

Sail Away

JRK, your mom sounds like an extraordinary woman. My heart goes out to you. I, too, am struggling with loss. The nursing home my mom is in has been calling every day. My mom's physical health is declining. It is time. She has no memory, no ability to communicate and no quality of life. She in in the end stages of Lewy Body Dementia. My youngest sister was just diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. I'm just feeling so sad and at a loss.

My husband has spent the entire week helping his JW parents. My mother-in-law fell and broke her hip and shoulder, and my father-in-law fractured his back helping her to her bed. There has been some healing. My father-in-law has been quite appreciative of my husband's help. It's an extraordinary man who can help his aging parents after nearly 50 years of shunning. You sound like that kind of man to me.

May you find peace,

Diane

29

Congregation dwindles

by wannaexit in

jw
friends

i think we are going to be seeing lots more of this stuff.

.

http://www.capjournal.com/news/pierre-jehovah-s-witnesses-put-up-smaller-kingdom-hall-to/article_e05d9c36-d8b9-11e7-acb3-9f63fb65c896.html.

Sail Away

Interesting to hear. I "pioneered where the need was great" in Oakes, North Dakota in 1976. At the time there were 50 publishers-- all related to one another. Looks like nothing has changed!

46

What Makes Someone Become a JW?

by minimus in

jw
friends

my excuse is that i was born in the religion.

but if someone wasn’t, why would they become one?.

Sail Away

I had an alcoholic father who was a serial liar and cheater. My parents wanted a boy, but had four girls first. My mother had post-partum depression with psychosis after each pregnancy. To say that family life was unstable and insane would be an understatement. The witnesses promised a happy family life. What nine year old wouldn't want that? My family studied for two years and then stopped. My father had no problem with the witnesses continuing to "study" with me and allowed me to get baptised at age 16.

90

So my PIMO Younger Brother Tried To Kill Himself Today

by pale.emperor in

we all know that this cult will drive those trying to leave to desperate measures, and today by brother was very nearly one of those statistics.

he slashed his thigh with a kitchen knife and was bleeding out until he called the police.. i got a call on my way home from work from a police officer, coincidentally it was one of my old friends from school who's now a cop.

he told me my brother is in hospital after an attempted suicide and has lost some blood but will be ok. but i should get to the hospital as he's asking for me.

Sail Away

Pale.emperor, I am so very sorry. There are just no words, nothing to say to make it better when a beloved family member gives up on life. I have been there with my son and thankfully, we came out the other side. Clearly this cult, the mind control and the cognitive dissonance are killing your brother. I'm so glad he reached out to you and am hoping he recovers and gains freedom of heart and mind. Please remember this is not your fault.

Hugs,

Diane

41

I yelled at a Dub today!

by kairos in

jw
friends

i was walking out of the store and i passed a former jw associate of 20+ years.

"keith"he was an elder, got df'd, lost his wife, got reinstated and last i heard started pioneering!so i see him as i'm walking to my parking spot.. i stop, look him straight in the face and yell from 20 feet away, "you're in a cult.

you're in a cult, dude!".

Sail Away

Kairos, it is clear that you are suffering. I'm truly sorry for that and can empathize. It seems, though, that you are inflicting even more pain on yourself, while the locals are just having their persecution complex and self-righteousness fed.

Please do find a way to calm yourself and be well.

Hugs,

Diane

15

Awakening from the Jehovah's witness nightmare.

by James Mixon in

a really moving testimony.

maybe some one can post it here, "monica singleton..awakening from the jehovah's witness nightmare".

posted nov. 11,2017 12:41 min........

Sail Away

Poor woman.

56

Biblical incidents that bothered me.

by EverApostate in

i wanted to discuss the (supposed) biblical events that disturbed me a lot when i was a jw.

these incidents were just read and discussed in the kingdom hall as if these are normal and justified, which clearly weren't.

perhaps this led to my awakening.

Sail Away

Job's ten kids are killed in a windstorm, so he gets 10 replacement kids, and it's all good.

Lot offers his two virgin daughters to be gang raped by the local homosexuals in order to protect some visiting angels. This is a vile account that is beyond reason-- what father would do such a thing, and why would homosexual men rape two young women, killing them? Women and children are clearly disposable in the Bible, and homosexuals are sex-crazed beasts who rape and kill young women.

30

If there was a resurrection in paradise

by Sour Grapes in

something that bothered me even when i was a watchtower company drone was the thought of dying and being resurrected in paradise.

would the resurrected person really be me or just a copy of me?

if god could recreate one of me, he could also recreate five of me.

Sail Away

A similar question was part of my waking up to TTAT. I was the only one of my immediate family who was still a JW, because my husband and children had all left the organization. If I was to be truly happy in paradise, wouldn't Jehovah have to erase all memory of them, so I wouldn't grieve their loss? If I couldn't remember being a wife and mother, just who would that be in paradise?

36

Kleenex Head Covering

by jwundubbed in

growing up a woman in the cult was pretty bleak.

most of the adult women i knew were either depressed sad women or an embarrassment to me.

i was typical kid in that regard.

Sail Away

When my son got baptized, I just couldn't bring myself to wear a head covering. It was demeaning and demoralizing. One more nail in the coffin of the JW cult.

Looking back, it still puzzles me that I stayed in for 42 years. I was a true believer. Ultimately, the cognitive dissonance very nearly killed me.