SEA BREEZE:
I agree with everybody’s comments but you are correct that the WT is utter ‘mind rape’. Very apt description.
I wasn’t born-in so I guess certain teachings weren’t so deeply rooted as others. I was able to shed the ‘paradise earth’ hope from my mind with not much trouble. Maybe I never entirely swallowed the whole thing. But getting rid of this carrot & stick belief was necessary when I started my ‘Fade’... I felt it was a cruel trick on my brain.
My general experience in the JW religion still did a number on my head that had lingering effects for years. Being treated like a typhoid Mary as a working single woman was appalling and what the hell did I need with that? I was probably held out as ‘you don’t want to be like her’!
But, I’m SO grateful that I stuck to my guns because I would not be Retired today if I had really listened to these Users.