Posts by Terry

26

A Parody of a typical Watchtower Article for your amusement: enjoy!

by Terry in

jw
friends

(matthew 24:14).

[matthew 24:14]

but, does this lead to true happiness?

Terry

I really agree we should put together a really tight facsimile copy of a Watchtower spoof with parody articles and collect a wee bit of money to print it off at Kinkos and distribute these at a Kingdom Hall or send them anonymously to our sappy JW relatives!

It could be done with all the bright minds around here. For one thing, there is so much to lampoon! In my parody I wanted to capture the insane run on sentence structure of the writing committee in Brooklyn. It is insane, convoluted and crammed with sloganeering!

My wife (who is Jewish) couldn't even read it with any understanding at all. Why? She has had her mind "trained" to hang in there throughout an endless sentence that leads nowhere! Lucky woman!

What do you say folks? Can we pool together a really smart looking doppleganger copy of a magazine?

What do you think?

Terry

26

A Parody of a typical Watchtower Article for your amusement: enjoy!

by Terry in

jw
friends

(matthew 24:14).

[matthew 24:14]

but, does this lead to true happiness?

Terry

Botchtower and Herald of

Jove's Witness Protection Program

August 15,2004

Should Christians Answer Rhetorical Questions?

What does the Bible Say?

Asking questions is an excellent way to make honest inquiry for the purpose of satisfying a healthy curiousity, educating our minds with accurate knowledge and increasing our awareness of facts about our planet, daily life and how we can improve our ability to protect ourselves and our loved ones from the ravages of disease, threats of terror and even the pitfalls of run-on sentences! (Matthew 24:14)

Yet, Christians must be aware that exercising their freedom to make such inquiries, while seemingly innocent, can lead to their ultimate destruction at the battle of the great day of God the Almighty! How so? Let us examine, in a spirit of humility and submission, exactly what the holy scriptures and, more importantly, Jehovah's 'faithful and discreet slave' at the Governing Body of his clean and happy fruit-filled organization rightly view the subject while simultaneously avoiding the pitfalls of running ahead of His 'mighty ones' who seemingly pull these things out of their body cavities! [Matthew 24:14]

The Dangers of Understanding Why You are being controlled

Worldy people, ravaged by goat-like stubborness and reeking with the stench of Satan's visible organization's harlot-like influence, have many facts at their command because of higher education and listening to propaganda-filled onslaughts of Public Radio and the wicked-spirit filled influence of unrighteous Internet based blogs and apostacy-laced websites who wrongly expose the false prophecies and feckless date-setting of Jah's slave class.

[Matthew 24:14]

But, does this lead to true happiness? The members of Jehovah's ark like organization of Noah-type family members who 'wait on Jehovah' and avoid such secular pollution all answer "NO!" because they are instructed to answer thusly by their extensive exposure to the 'Truth that leads to eternal life"and the threat of disfellowshipping. (Matthew 24:14]

While the dying old system of things around them promises a bright future if they work hard, get a "good" education and plan for a brighter tomorrow by careful investments and the cultivation of a network of savvy financial consultants, worldy people seem to have much easier lives than Jehovah's Happy people! But, do they really? [Matthew 24:14]

Jehovah's happy, contented, sheeplike proclaimers of the joyful news about the established kingdom of God which has been in place since 1874, 1914 and perhaps other times, all realise that having a pot to pee in and a Watchtower magazine are all an honest-hearted Christian really needs for genuine happiness! [Matthew 24:14]

The reason for this is most obvious to any bible-trained, sheep-like hypenated Christian seeker of indoctrination at the hands of the anointed class of corporate bully boys and aging, latter-day anti-types of Old Testament servants of old who were foreordained from the "foundation of the world'. [Matthew 24:14]

Jonadabs, other sheep and Betty Boop publishers who follow their slave master Jesus' instruction to "Go therefore and preach the good news of the Watchtower (New World Translation] for a Jehovah's Witness to all the nations".

[Gnostic Gospel of Marvin 2:13] have learned to ask, "How high" when instructed to "Jump", by their owner and operator, aka Michael the Arch Angel, alias Immanuel, formerly known as Prince.

How Much?

Wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? What does the Bible say? Does it matter? It is what the Brooklyn cadre manage to invent that really matters, isn't it? Sure! [Matthew 24:14]

How Long?

W

hen will all the madness end and Paradise begin? Only Jehovah's wife knows the answer to that one! And what do all the scriptures from Genesis to 2nd Macabees reveal to honest inquiry? Depends on what you mean by "what?"

Only Jehovah's happy, sappy, goofy people have the accurate knowledge from their examination of the Great Pyramind of Cheops! Yes, that's right! NEW LIGHT, brothers! More NEW LIGHT! [Matthew 24:14]

We know it looks like 'Old Light" which was "Present Truth" but passed into disrepute and vanished for awhile--but, it is so darned fascinating we brought it back for a six week run off Broadway (which the Society recently purchased along with the NY Stock Exchange] and here is what a careful measurement of the passages tells us.

The Witness in Stone

From the base of the pyramid to the prefrontal lobe on a tangent to the Caesarian section of the conical, we find a distance of 2004 cubits, one bushel and two pecks. Quite naturally this reveals in the spirit of truth at the direction of the big guy in the sky that we are living in END TIMES! Does this shock you? It does us! This is just too freakin weird not to be true! How appropriate if it were true! We need it to be true! We all do! The collections have been down since the 1975 debacle and we sure need something to juice up the brothers! And speaking of juice; did you know prune juice can cure cancer? But, don't cook it in an aluminum pot!

Beware of Apostates!

N

aturally there are going to be a bunch of Satan inspired apostates out there in goat-land who will scoff and ridicule the New World Society for yet another wacky prediction based on nothing more than flagging revenues and a lame premise; however, true Christians won't allow mere common sense to intrude into the holly jolly protective fart-bubble that the Watchtower brainiacs have concocted out of whole cloth. [Matthew 24:14] No. "No way", Jah say.

But, what is an Apostate? Why, anybody who pisses us off by asking embaressing questions, that's who! Former walkers in the light who have forsaken the shining path of righteous and traded it in (with a $200 rebate] for the darkness of khaki'-colored Satan-dom, know they have a 'short time left' and seek to destroy the multi-billion dollar empire of Gawd Amighty! They point out our inconsistencies, our feckless chronology, our doctrinal changes, our crackdown on honest-inquiry and our Wal-Mart fashion stylings for the sole purpose of making us look like false prophets! But, we cannot be False Prophets! False Prophets loose face because they are always wrong. Jehovah's Anointed slave forbids brothers and sisters all over Spaceship Earth to acknowledge our errors, or else! Brothers and sisters of the true faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Freddy, join hands, turn away from such facts and, instead, do the Hokey Pokey to the somnolent strains of synthesized Kingdom Tunes on midi-files available at your local Kingdom Hall literature counter for a love-offering of $195.

Now is the Time!

For every good man to come to the aid of his corporate sponsor! Give generously of your time, your talents, your youth and especially your estate as we enter the last few seconds of this wicked, dying old system! Obviously this means there is no time to waste on activities of the flesh such as buying groceries, clipping toenails or visits to the potty! No! Now is the time to preach, teach, declare, proclaim, inveigh, prod, poke, cajole, incite, bugger, flip-off, eat a bug, and take a flying leap for the King of Jehovah's new transitional, money-back guranteed, no-nonsense, low-carb, high octane New Order of Jehovah-bots. [Matthew 24:14]

Will You Be There?

On the day all the birds of heaven gather to munch eyeballs and pick the rancid flesh of those slaughtered gleefully at Armageddon by the loving, sword-weilding killer angels of Jah, will you be one of the rotting corpses of putrefying flesh; or, will you be doing the Lambada with the buxom Kingdom babes in God's new paradise arrangement where all the Governing Body will live like kings with 24 virgins, caviar, and a crate of the bubbly?

Did Jah fire six shots; or only five? Well, seeing how'z his Abbadon with the sword is the most powerful assassain angel in the world and can cut your head clean off....you've gotta ask yourself a question! Do you feel lucky? Well, do you punk? If you don't, then maybe you need to scoot your worthless butt down to the local Kingdom Emporium of Bible babble and shell out some hard cash for our life-saving literature. It might mean the difference between life and death! But, remember, no facial hair! It could stumble the weaker brothers. [Matthew 24:14]

[Questions for Watchtower study]

1.Who is John Galt? How did the prophet Jeremiah pre-figure his shrug?

2.Why do diet drinks taste so artificial? Does this tie look okay with this shirt?

3.In view of the admonition in James 2:14, how should Christians do the Funky Chicken?

4.Will the United Nations ever send back my bookbag I left there while doing research in their Satanic library?

5.Wrongdoers in the congregation of God--how do we keep them out of the newspapers?

6.Brother Fugbutton has a sloping forehead; does this mean he'd make a good Presiding Elder?

7.If an elder predicts that a sister will pay for breast implants; does this make him a Falsie prophet?

8.What's good on TV tonight after the Westwing?

B otchtower

August 15,2004

16

upcoming JC - info needed

by mineralogist in

jw
friends

after some months they finally "invited" us on a jc for - even if they didn't say - apostasy.

i once read somewhere of an official letter (boe or something) that the elders should let people fade if they want and don't cause any trouble.

as this is what we carefully tried i'd wish if someone could verify this policy and hopefully could dircet to the writing.. i think of participating the jc (they want to call with 4(!

Terry

Actually nobody "has" to attend a Judicial Committee.

You won't be kidnapped and duct taped and carried there kicking and screaming.

Think of the JC meeting as a spider web and you are the fly.

The spider invites you in; but, you don't have to agree.

That is the mistake I made when I was invited to the JC meeting. I actually showed up!

Had I not showed up they would not and could not have disfellowshipped me.

Why? Because I had not done anything! There was no evidence, testimony or fact against me.

What they did was get me in front of them and try to provoke me into saying something defensive or rebellious. I don't remember actually SAYING anything that would be construed as defensive or rebellious--but, that did not keep the committee from hearing it anyway.

It took less than fifteen minutes to be disfellowhipped for me.

I could have avoided it.

Why would I avoid it? So as to avoid the nonsensical and hurtful shunning by friends and brothers who might otherwise continue to share some humane relationship unfettered by fear and guilt.

That's my two cents.

Terry

59

My Life in Jehovah's Service - VERY INTERESTING STORY

by Dogpatch in

jw
friends

" the overseer made it quite plain..

"if i can't say i have been advised not to serve in alternate service--why are you actually doing it?

i was there to serve jehovah; consequently i was doing jehovah's will.

Terry

Hi Michelle,

I don't know if I mentioned the fact I have 7 children! That has given me a bit of insight on what seems to communicate with them and what zips past them at the speed of light.

Kids like information to be simple and direct. The don't want to "read into" parents comments or figure out what you are "really" saying in subtext. They like their rules few and fair and quickly enforced when injustice breaks out. Kids want limits but, don't want them arbitrary or bendable.

I say all the above to provide a context for why I, in turn, have a kind of presupposition about how a heavenly parent might effectively communicate. I say "effective" because something has to work to be useful.

If my kid is choking, for example, it won't be effective parenting to lecture him on chewing his food while he turns purple and passes out. Grabing him and physically assisting him in clearing his breathing passages might be better strategy. This is an analogy, of course, to represent my petulance with any kind of Father (heavenly or earthly) who watches while children choke (or starve or be sexually abused) and lifts not a finger. Shocking though it is to say I have given up on the idea that any such invisible guy in the sky could be "love" while idly observing millennia of human tragedies silently.

That is the burden of religion which sells us on the "father" notion; making such passive acceptance of our plight seem "just" or "loving" or, well, parentally responsible. The best anybody has come up with is a strange apology. It goes like this: God allows suffering so that.....blah blah blah. And whatever the phrase is that explains the blah blah blah part the bottom line is dying and suffering children start piling up while god accomplishes his "purpose".

Whether God's passive acceptance (until, of course, He makes it all okay again) is still cruelty or not is not much of a debate. I present you with the Munchausen by Proxy syndrome. Ever hear about it? It is an astonishing form of child abuse whereby usually a parent will make a child sick so they can rescue them and gain the benefit of appearing heroic. Is that sick or what? I don't think it is less sick if God does it. But, that is just me.

That is why I choose not to believe that whatever or whoever "god' is has anything at all to do with being a father or parent at all. I choose to believe that such a notion is warm and fuzzy and comforting but completely refuted by the facts of life. I, instead, regard god as a kind of cosmic Johnny Appleseed who enable life (somehow) and moved away leaving us to our own resources.

At least this hit and run creator was, at worst, an anonymous doner and not a caretaker who schemes to vindicate injustice after a few thousand years of suffering and senseless deaths.

But, nobody is under any obligation to think like I do. That's just my way of keeping it as sane as I can. I further don't think prayer is anything other than "talking to one's self". If talking to myself is prayer, then I must be the source of god! That is feasible, but, rather dingy. People seem to have the ability to believe whatever they darned well desire. More power to them.

I've simply developed a taste for some internal consistency in my ludicrous brain scenarios. The more certain, sure, convinced and "happy" other people are with their own beliefs the more I recoil in skepticism and caution. Once burned; twice cautious.

But, don't let my priggish bluntness upset you. I don't direct any ill will toward the beauty and gentleness of your offered thoughts to myself. I've got splinters and not spikes.

I think you sound like a marvellous person with a great attitude.

Terry

37

How Do You Regard Yourself?

by minimus in

jw
friends

are you happy about who you are?

do you look down upon yourself?

are ya feelin' pretty good about yourself these days??

Terry

I regard myself as very fortunate (notice the word "lucky" was rooted out of me by JW's? :) if I do the following:

1.Get up early and exercise in some way

2.Learn a new skill no matter how small or silly

3.Add one word to my vocabulary each day

4.Write a small monograph on something that interests me and then read it a day later

5.Spend time around children

6.Compose a piece of music or edit one I've already worked on

7.Keep up with world events and try to find an objective middleground for judging those events

8.Take any paragraph in any Watchtower publication and root out the hidden persuaders (mostly adjectives and introductory clauses).

9. Avoid passive days; find a way of being active

10. Get out of the house as soon as possible!

I hope that answers the question. I should add one to the above. Associating with people such as the one's on this group is quite delightful!

I regard myself as A WORK IN PROGRESS. It is all up to me how it turns out.

Terry

59

My Life in Jehovah's Service - VERY INTERESTING STORY

by Dogpatch in

jw
friends

" the overseer made it quite plain..

"if i can't say i have been advised not to serve in alternate service--why are you actually doing it?

i was there to serve jehovah; consequently i was doing jehovah's will.

Terry

Hi Michelle,

I started to answer your two questions and my answer grew to huge proportions! I'll give a simple reply and then slightly (I hope) elaborate.

1.Do I believe the Bible is error free?

Answer: I can't, based on my readings about how the bible was put together. In WHO WROTE THE BIBLE by scholar Elliot Friedman, the Professor explains how different oral traditions were collected and edited over the centuries to prop up certain tribal preferences. Various scholars and research specialists who do not have a religiously built-in bias report the sad news to any who want to read about it. The Jewish religion was regarded, even by the Jews themselves, as a collection of "just so" stories and cherished folk wisdom. Only ancient and naive people would argue that scriptures were data or information. Do a web search on the above titled book and read the synopsis. Go to the Straight Dope website. I also reccomend Elaine Pagels or Karen Armstrong's books. Don't trust people automatically when they write books. Find out who they are and what their bias might be. I checked out the above authors and I respect them.

Seondly, I think scholars have pretty much exploded the myth that the Christian Greek scriptures were divine. Hundreds of Jesus stories abounded. The earlier the story; the less of a super-hero we find. The farther away from Jesus' time; the more miraculous the stories become.

I also think Paul was the inventor of Christianity. The Jerusalem congregation was not interested in changing Judaism. Paul took neo-Platonic pagan philosophy and did a brilliant job of adapting it to the Jewish religion. His evangelic work was against Jesus' followers permission or respect. He sneaked around and did his own thing. Pagans were eager for the kind of Jesus he gave them.

Roman christianity became a policial power grab and orthodoxy was necessary to secure that power base. The compilation of a unique Bible canon was a series of heavily edited political choices. Read early historians such as Eusebius. The Early Church fathers spent most of their time killing each other, burning churches, struggling for the Emperor's favor and shutting up their opponents. Pagans were accustomed to heros who died and came back from the dead. Pagans were used to rulers who were both men and gods. Those pagans favored a version of Jesus that gave them that kind of heavenly ruler. Barbarians were more in favor of a mostly human strongman who wielded power. Their versions of Christianity prefer him to be human and a son of god rather than divine. Personal tastes and politics give us our Bible. There are no magic "original documents". It is all copies of copies of hearsay in a million jigsaw pieces we have.

I'm saddened by this, but, I'm able to accept it. Why? Because it frees us all from an ancient book of wisdom that can be used by power hungry mystics to control us by claiming a mysterious channel of communication to god!

2.Your second question about my willingness to do Jehovah's will is a fine question.

Let me say this first. I don't think a Supreme Being should be referred to in the way JW's do it.

I would not call my own earthly father by his name," Wesley". I'd only call him Dad, or Papa, etc. It is extremely disrespectful to address your elders, your leaders, your superiors by their personal name. JW's act like they automatically have God's attention simply by saying the magic word: Jehovah. Jews have always preferred not to disrespect God by casual use of his personal name. They are not superstitious about it--they are respectful. Now, having said that I'll answer your question directly. I am personally ashamed of my life! There, I've said it. Walking around pretending I have a divine mission in life was hubris and, frankly, silly. Having an "invisible friend" is not a sign of a healthy mind. Once I realized that God NEEDS NOTHING because God is complete; THEN and only then did I get my mental perspective straight. JW's act like they have a job to do FOR god. Nonsense! People are the ones who have needs because they are frail and temporary creatures with short life spans and many weaknesses. To waste our lives ignoring each others actual needs is cruel and unnecessary! God needs nothing! We need everything. We must, simply must get our priorities straight. God doesn't die; we do. God doesn't get hungry or need shelter; we do. Yet look how millions of silly humans build houses for god and waste their lives turning prayer wheels looking for patronage from a guy in the sky.

I now believe that humans need to use their minds and energies in making their own lives meaningful by careful choices. We make life or we break life by our personal choices. GOD is a distraction from what really matters since God needs nothing and has everything already. We have so little and hardly any time to do anything about it. FACT: God never says anything. Have you heard him say anything?

Millions of JW's give their time and energies and even their lives chasing an imaginary idea around while ignoring their own flesh and blood, their families, their real friends and build no life at all. JW's are not wealthy people; they are under educated and frail blue collar workers who make the Brooklyn Slave executives rich and powerful.

Relgion is an upside down mistake mostly because it ignores the needs of human beings which are real needs. It robs from the poor and gives to the rich. I repeat: God needs nothing; we are the ones with needs.

I hope the above doesn't sound too "preachy" and strident in tone. I have no channel to God's ear. I have no mystical connection to the divine. I'm just a guy. Ignore me if I sound goofy.

Indeed, I have spent most of my life in goofy pursuits. So, consider the source!

But, thanks for your kind words. I hope I answered your question honestly.

Terry

59

My Life in Jehovah's Service - VERY INTERESTING STORY

by Dogpatch in

jw
friends

" the overseer made it quite plain..

"if i can't say i have been advised not to serve in alternate service--why are you actually doing it?

i was there to serve jehovah; consequently i was doing jehovah's will.

Terry

I thank everyone for the overwhelmingly positive things you've said about the piece I wrote. Naturally, I've had years to think about all that happened and why. Important to me was essentially why I did what I did and thought what I thought.

It is gut wrenching when you first grasp in your own mind that what you believe to be absolute truth is actually phoney and manmade. It is beyond expression. Then the anger begins!

What I fault the New World Society for mostly is how they steal people's futures from them.

The play Waiting for Godot tells of certain people waiting on the arrival of another character who never shows up. That is the essence of what happens to Jehovah's Witnesses. You spend all your time discussing what will "soon" happen and never happens. You are persuaded to throw away your chance at a meaningful life in the name of something ultimately nonsensical.

And too, serving a group of men in Brooklyn who call themselves "slaves" is laughable.

They have become slavemasters. The power they wield is absolute. Pity it is put to such feckless purposes. JW's keep busy collecting funds and passing it on to the the Society.

All the preaching done by all the lovely and sincere people for all the years is nothing more than a make-work scheme to juggle as many empty doctrines and promises as strength permits.

People die for the Brooklyn whims and call it service to god! That is awful and unnecessary.

If I help just one person with my own story it will all have been worthwhile.

I feel like a fool after all. I let it happen. I thought I was smart but I was a nutjob. The Jehovah doctrines present a bridge between god and mankind. But, in truth, it is a Brooklyn bridge you are buying.

41

Will I die at Armageddon?

by sinamongurl in

jw
friends

the anwser is: know one really knows but jehovah.. i have been df'd for 3 years now.

i still struggle with: "should i go back cuz i dont want to die" .

but then its not really for the "right" reason.

Terry

As an ex-JW I have certain fixed things burned into my brain. Is there anything more powerful than the idea that the supreme ruler of the universe is going to kill you??

But, such an idea, upon examination, is ludicrous in the extreme. The idea of a Supreme Being who gets pissed off is laughable. These are ancient ideas from unelightened, frightened primitive minds. Stop and ask yourself how the world can be "out of control" in the face of an all-powerful being with the power to make things happen (and prevent them).

The whole "Divine Plan" of the ages is rickety and homemade; very low-tech and ill-advised upon closer examination. Instead of putting things in order when they go awry (like any competent Chief Executive) we are told this Supreme Being has to come up with an emergency plan that will enable him to prove to lesser creatures that he is not a liar! The world becomes this vast wind-up machine where this goes here and that falls off there and hits a lever which pops up and.....a RUBE GOLDBERG cartoon! 6,000 years it takes to "vindicate" God's name? Huh?

What utter nonsense! I can understand somebody standing in Athens in 800 B.C. entertaining the idea that Zeus might hurl a thunderbolt at him if he doesn't grease the palm of the local priest with a bribe---because they didn't know any better. It was barely feasible--but, maybe a safe bet to be religious and play it safe. But, thousands of years later we have found out how things actually happen. The mysterious has become comprehensible.

Divine agency is a thing of the past--the unconscious mind! We make our own lives now. The undercurrents of demons and ghosts and things that bump in the night are a dream we have awakened from. Our nightmares now are the Muslim fundamentalists who STILL BELIEVE all those silly stories are true! The terrorists are terrified of the modern world because it is proving them to be backward idiots with their heads stuck in the sand. They will not face up to the modern world and the destruction of their world view. So, instead of growing up and joining a productive society; they simply wish to destroy the proof that they are clinging to nutty belief systems.

Why should we be like them? Why fear the unseen and quail at a patchwork book (the bible) that is a vast accumulation of constant revisions of extinct ideas, fears and guesswork of bygone civilizations? We live TODAY--not thousands of years ago!

Would you treat an illness with leeches? Would you bleed a man who has pneumonia to let out the "bad humours"? Why then, cling to the idea of a wrathful deity who is "coming to get you" if you aren't a good sheep??

Be free. Just be done with Medievalism. Jump into the pool and swim.

I had to start all over and learn how the world really works.....from scratch.

I got a book on Physics and learned how things work.

I read some books by Joseph Campbell about how all Myths are the same from culture to culture and religion to religion.

I read about the Documentary Hypothesis and learned how the Bible was the work of several redactors working from disparate sources. I studied historians. I read enlightenment authors and traced the path of civilizations. In short--I started all over. I got rid of the nonsense that had accumulated in my brain that was a FALSE idea of how the universe works and replaced it with state-of-the-art information which is current.

So, it is not unlike a fellow who, one day, throws away his rabbit's foot, burns his astrology books, simply takes the shortest root under a ladder laughing at his previous superstitious view of the real world.

You are on your own. There is no vengeful deity. The real enemies are the religious nuts who won't let go of fairy tales and who won't let you get on with your life.

If you don't join the collective mentality of the cultists; they seek to annhilate you by wishing you dead at Armageddon.

There is no Armageddon. Armageddon is today: wipe out the mysticism from your brain and join the real world. You'll enjoy your freedom. You really really will.

Terry

22

From God's Hands To Yours

by TD in

jw
friends

without a doubt the most time-worn excuse of jw's when it comes to errors, omissions and failures of the jw parent organization goes something like this:i only ask that things be put in perspective and to also realize that the writers of the society are not inspired.. .

the statement above is certainly true.

the writers for the society certainly are not inspired.

Terry

My best friend is still a JW and our conversations now and then turn to his view of what the society really is. I find it most interesting.

Apparently, being an intelligent chap he is aware of the errors of the past. He no longer makes excuses for them. However, he doesn't believe there is anything being offered elsewhere that is BETTER!

I tried to point out to him the fundamental error of his reasoning. He is simply "assuming" that he must go somewhere else! It is like being a kind of drug addict who knows his supplier is cheating him--but, he cannot do without the drug and is afraid of starting all over with a new source of the "high". It does not ever penetrate his head that all he needs do is KICK THE HABIT altogether!

He says "only Jehovah's Witnesses" preach door to door.

I point out that it is WHAT they preach that is so important: i.e. utter nonsense!

Just taking magazines and books full of fanciful fluff is not doing anybody any favors. But, it is his ritual and he needs the ritual.

I asked him if he ever stopped and thought about the following:

What if you were able to enter a kind of Twilight Zone time warp and have a conversation with a Jehovah's Witness of fifty years ago? Do you think you would be members of the same religion? How about a 100 years ago? Do you think JW's believe the same things, preach the same things, have the same views they once did? NO, NO, NO! You would each disagree on all the fundamentals and would each regard the other as wrong, wrong, wrong. It is a huge myth of a chosen people walking in righteousness that is so addictive. But, the righteousness is just a kind of shadow puppetry; a "make-work" project to keep you busy and empty of genuine content.

What JW's actually have loyalty to is THE SOCIETY and not god or the bible.

Catholics have the Pope or the Church and JW's have the WT bible and tract society.

Those men have been wrong (or inconsistent) over and over again while proclaiming they have the Truth directly throught the spirit of God. If it were truth it would not change; but, change it has. Why did it change? Because it crashed head on into a meatgrinder of real world tests.

You can live in a fantasy or you can live in the real world; but, the two aren't compatible.

The real world trumps the fantasy each and every time. The society has had to back down over and over on real world dissonances and change their doctrine while simply labeling it as "new and improved" or NEW LIGHT.

Believe me, it is not the doctrine JW's crave or even THE TRUTH, it is the mythos; the subconscious patterns of activity that seemingly connect them to a constant and unchanging babysitter who'll keep them safe from the monsters. They fear becoming adults---non-dependant adults. Becoming an adult means facing your fears and actually doing something about them in the real world. Adults earn their way. JW's want to sneak through the future on patronage.

My friend, I believe, "knows" he is convincing himself that he is in the right place. He is like an ancient mariner gazing at a map of a "flat" world. He may secretly think the world just ...might..be round...but, why sail into the void alone? Why risk going over the edge? After all, there they be dragons!

Terry

32

When do the nightmares end?

by EyeDrEvil in

jw
friends

just a question for the board's input.... background information:.

my wife, raised in a jw home, very popular elder as her father, living through the entire 1975 thing ("honey don't worry about passing 7th grade.

next year will be the new system..."), but beat up for years by the mind-control and spiritual abuse by the wts.... she has recently officially da'd from the society this spring, had her first birthday party ever (a huge blast of a great time!).

Terry

I think there are stages we go through when our world view is turned upside down.

We all have our anchor points. We have a map inside our head that tells us what's what.

But, one day there is no Santa Claus and the next we've replaced him with a deity.

Things you are told, and taught and instructed about stick to your bones. It isn't a light switch you can flick on and off. It is a kind of realistic miracle that any of us can suddenly "realize"'

we are WRONG about anything; much less break free from our dependance on it. The easiest thing we do is make an immediate REPLACEMENT. But, that's not easy. Ex-cigarette smokers might become heavy eaters or drinkers. Ex-husbands and wives might suddenly find themselves deep in a new relationship that mimmicks the old rotten one. We are creatures of habit.

We live in a world that can scare us unless we have our "blanky". The thunder and lightning send us under the covers. We retreat under the veil of "pretending" something won't hurt us.

Philosophy calls that PRIMACY of CONSCIOUSNESS, which is just a fancy term for a mystical pretense that we can make things happen or make things real just by BELIEVING them.

I went through years of a phase whereby I was not a Jehovah's Witness anymore; but, for all practical purposes I still had the roots of the weed growing inside my head. In other words, I still thought the same thought patterns! My world view didn't change at all just because I stopped believing! Scary? Yes. But, it was a habit of thinking. A habit that was hard to break.

I find many ex-JW's who just go on believing almost everything in the same patterns--but--without the Watchtower Society connected to it. They jump into another religion or become bullish on debunking the Witnessess or just reading tons of anything that can give them THE ANSWERS.

That is understandable; but worthless. Why? Our dependance on getting THE ANSWERS from others is what got us in trouble in the first place. My view is this: nobody has a secret pipeline to absolute knowledge about anything. They are all pretending and then convincing themselves they are certain. What causes the nightmares then?

Your subconscious mind knows there are no BIG answers and no supernatural anything. Once you really admit that you are apt to be terrified. Why? YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN! You have to become an adult. That is a tough path to take. You get to make your own world without hand-me-downs from well-meaning (but misguided) others.

I recently read a most enlightening book by Karen Armstrong. It concerns the Fundamentalist mentality in the three great monotheistic religions. She made something clear to me for the first time. Humans need a mythos (a story that connects them to a timeless sense of constancy).

Religion plays that role. The rituals and bonding give us a sense of belonging to a fixed system of measures we can wield to protect us from change and uncertainty.

But, real life is change; constant change. Fundamentalists are terrified of change. They cling to a mythic past. The golden age is always long ago. The future holds only the terrible Great War of God the Almighty. Religious mythology makes us weaklings who must cling and cower under the protective umbrella of orthodoxy: right practices.

To wean ourselves away from that primitive view we must create our own new (and healthy) rituals. We must belong to ourselves in freedom. We don't cling to groups or gurus or HUGE TRUTHS; because those crackpot notions are unhealthy and feckless.

The Nightmares are healthy; they are the monsters of the ID breaking free from all the mumbo jumbo you've been told all your life. Once they break out of their unconscious prison and run away they just don't ever come back. I find I'm not longer afraid of the dark and can't get scared in horror movies anymore! It is all nonsense now and not boogeymen demons spying on me!

It is wonderful to be free. Rejoice in it. Embrace the fleeing nightmares and kiss them goodbye.

Terry