I am fascinated by what creates the "tipping point" for a committed believer--not just JWs or cult members but for all of us who have cherished beliefs and resisted all opportunities/pressures to give them up. Some people just seem to get better and better at finding convincing rationales to assure ourselves that we should go right on cherishing those beliefs. And some suddenly recognize an inconsistency and life-long convictions collapse. I have a theory that the more of ourselves we have to give up or the more pain we have endured in the process of accepting a belief, the harder it is to let go of it. But it is fascinating--and as we all know, it does not have to do with intelligence.
Kgfree...good points. This is what happened to me--I came to my tipping point--the child molesting WT policy was one tipping point--I knew of a situation and saw the way it was being handled and you could say it really "stumbled" me. I reasearched and found the silent lambs program--I could no longer be in denial. Even though I had been a devout JW for 20 years the underpinnings of those beliefs were slowly eroding away until one day the walls just came tumblilng down.--suddenly the realizations poured in on me and I saw it for what it really was.. I was in a state of denial and think I was snapped out of it rather suddenly by a few major incidents. I feel now like I just awoke from a hypnotic trance--it scares me now to think of how brainwashed I was.