these are some things i have been thinking about .
.. when i first found this site i registered immediately ... never was a "lurker" ... and i've been here about six months.. everyone was very warm welcoming and i felt at home very quickly ... very pleasant at the time, but as time has progressed i look back and feel a bit "love-bombed" ... much like a religion i used to belong to.. i have found that this site is a bit "cliquey" ... groups of posters frequent at similar times and enjoy their familiarity with each other and that's great ... but they also sometimes exhibit a coolness toward those outside their clique ... almost as if your 'post count' is the first thing by which you are "judged" ... much like a religion i used to belong to.
some posters develop a personal dislike for others and not only jump on their threads but even deliver the odd "slap" on unrelated threads to increase the discomfort for the object of their dislike ... not unlike a religion i once belonged to.. some posters even follow others around the board looking to counter or use snide or clever put downs at every opportunity ... a kind of intellectual "rivalry" that was common to those in that religion i used to belong to.. many posters like to use 'in-house' jargon and labels eg; "newbies" for those recently joined.
That was a long farewell....LOL!
I have been around here on occasion for years and there has, and always will be cliques. They come they go. People have different needs. Many want confirmation of their opinion. They are the ones who burn out becuse it is inevitable that someone wont agree.
Just take it for what is is, a forum, nothing else
i'm going to a party this weekend, the hostess has organised a fortune teller to come in and tell peoples fortunes if they want it.
i don't belive in this, but i'm i will be told " go on!
its just a bit of fun!
After leaving the cult, I did a few readings. The vaste majority were simply woeful but I did have one with a creepy dude recommended by a friend. He not only read my future but more importantly my past. He didn't ask (leading) questions, just told me statements of 100% fact. I wasn't asked for affirmation. At the end he told me that I had the power as well but I was afraid of the dead..Too right!! This may sound strange but I intentionally changed my plans that he had read just to prove to myself that I am in control of my life.
Months later, I was told from a reliable source that he was a genuine "devil worshipper". Who knows or cares? Just another experience.
my wife (never a jw) is ill and undergoing a series of treatments that will last for many months.
it's a physical, emotional, and financial drain on both of us.. my wife has run her own business for many years and has an extensive client list that includes some very well-to-do folks.
one of those clients called her one day and offered to pay all of her medical expenses.
Isn't it tragic that it took us all so long to appreciate this? The world is what we make it. We are not victims.
here's mine :.
back in the early 90's we went to the sunday talk and wt study.. lo and behold, a friend from the 70's who was df'ed ( he had just been reinstated) was there along with his parents.
i had no idea that they would have been there.. one of my kids was getting sick, so my wife and i were up-down the entire meeting walking him around.
My worst was at the end at an assembly when one of the "governing body" said we must not think but react. He gave the example of a migrating flock of birds. He said they don't think, they just follow the leader bird, so we must obey every command of the "gov body." I looked to my wife and she just appeared gobsmacked and so disappointed...Our faith had been a sham for all those years.
wow what can i say....last night i meet her again.
the wonderfull feminine energy of ayahuasca!
it was my fouth time i got to go to the other side.
This is a very popular ceremony where I live. Years ago, I tried DMT the active ingredient in Aya. An extremely powerful experience but just that, an experience. The people I speak to who use it regularly are like religious zealots, full of ego and thinking they are superior beings (there is a cloak of love and humility but hang around 'em for a while).
I see Aya as another "short cut" to enlightenment, or using a less new age term, maturity. You gotta do the hard yards....
a nuclear reactor is built in such a way, that when operating normally, you take out all the moderator rods.
so if these radioactive materials are released into the environment, yes, radioactivity was released, but no, it is not dangerous, at all.
when the uranium splits, it generates a neutron (see above).
Thankyou for the layman's version of the facts. I had a basic knowledge of what was happening due to reading the report on 3 Mile Island partial meltdown many years ago. That is why I realised the outer contaiment area was filling with potentially explosive gases and was wondering if it would blow. I think Japan has much greater worries than a complete meltdown, with it snowing and aparrantly no food or fresh water available in many areas. Poor buggers....
first of all, i have severe arachnophobia.
rationally, i know most spiders are harmless, but something takes over my brain and my body when i see one........i totally freak out, i can't help it.
they are little pieces of death, wrapped in scarey...... .
Sigfried asked Maxwell Smart (at gunpoint)..."How do you vant to die Schmart?" Max's reply.."From old age!"
first of all, i have severe arachnophobia.
rationally, i know most spiders are harmless, but something takes over my brain and my body when i see one........i totally freak out, i can't help it.
they are little pieces of death, wrapped in scarey...... .
Australia has the funnel web spider, which to me is the ultimate nightmare. It will not back off when confronted but will rear up ready to attack It can kill in 3 minutes. Also we have the taipan and the eastern brown snake both highly toxic and both living in my area. Actually one day walking along a bush track(and admittedly reading as well!!), I got that hair rising on the back of the neck feeling. I looked up and was confronted by a massive brown snake reared up to my own height! It had to be 10 to 12 feet long and thick as my upper arm. He/she was a confident old bugger and held its ground as I slowly backed away...I now carry a stick when walking in thick bush (and sometimes a Bowie knife).
i've read some random articles of late and have found a recurring factor which could well be answered effectively by many of the posters here.
basically the notion relates to what makes one vulnerable to indoctrination into a high-control religious cult and goes lke this .
while most, if not all humans seek group approval and association to some degree .
The German nation is cursed then!! LOL!
speaking hypothetically, a elder can not except the logic on the.
new understanding of the doctrine change (over lapping generation).. he voice his concern to his wife, she being a good jw , tell the elders.. the brother have not spoke to anyone in the cong.
about his doubt.. the elders question him, he remains firm, he tell the brothers, i have.
This basically happened to me when the "generation" shifted in the late 90's. I voiced my concerns (to the elders privately) that there had been a 180 degree turn in belief. I received a visit from two elders. I showed them the new belief in the wt, then highlighted articles from the jw CD. The turning point was when the older respected (by me) elder gave no argument but said "You better be careful.You are sounding like an apostate." I left and I assume was df for apostacy (I don't know, as I refused to speak to them after that disappointment). I wonder if he thought of me when the wt article came out a year or so later, confirming my research...
