Posts by cognizant dissident

35

Beautiful Women and Dorks

by Save My Soul in

jw
friends

looking back at a few bethel threads and getting calls from many former friends last week about the assembly season, i reflected back on some of the assemblies of the past, particularly in the 80's and 90's.. do you remember beautiful sisters that just had the criteria of having a spiritual man.

they would get a dorky pioneer / elder / ms and walk together at the assembly.

everyone would wonder, "how the hel did that happen".

cognizant dissident

I think most of those dorky guys must be very cunning linguists!

Cog

24

Universalism

by choosing life in

i was talking to a friend who believes that everyone will acieve eternal life eventually.

she used some scriptures that make sense to me.. 1 cor.

15:22 -for as in adam all die, so also in christ, all will be made alive.. rom.8 :38,39- basically states that nothing can seperate us from god's love.. it was kind of refreshing to hear her talk about everyone being important and worthwhile to god.

cognizant dissident

Tetra

Always enjoy (and mostly agree with) your philosophy. Just curious though. Why do you say the universe will someday compress down to a singularity?

Cog

41

My Story

by Missanna in

ok for some reason i can't sleep tonight and feel like writing so i'm gonna tell my story of how i got to this point.

.

ahhhhm.

cognizant dissident

Hey Missana

I understand your misgivings on therapy, especially if you had a bad experience in the past. Trusting a therapist is crucial, and ironically, trusting anyone is one of the hardest things for someone who has been abused. You don't always get what you pay for with therapists either. More expensive is not necessarily better. I was so fortunate as to get free counseling for a year from a local agency that specialized in helping battered women but also provided counseling for survivors of child abuse. I clicked with the woman assigned to me immediately. The process of dredging up old feelings was so difficult though that I kept telling her, "I thought counselling was supposed to make you feel BETTER!" Every time I left there I felt like shit emotionally for a few days. But I kept with it. The important thing to realize is that the process can make you feel worse for awhile but the counselor should never make you feel worse or feel like shit. Mine always knew just the right thing to say to make me feel better. Trust your gut survivor instincts and you will know when you have a good one. You will just feel the genuine caring and respect. Also, you have nothing to lose. If you get a bad vibe from a therapist there is no obligation. You just walk immediately and find another until you get a good one.

Cog

13

Been in psychoanalysis/psychotherapy?

by michael downing in

being a dyed in the wool northeasterner means i have certain proclivities:.

a love of smashmouth nfc east football and an abiding affection for underachieving baseball teamsthe ability to find woody allen films (nee' woody allen himself) exceptionally funnyan uncontrollable desire to drive 4 miles out of my way to go to the place with the better bagelsno aversion to psychotherapy/analysisi went under psychotherapy for about 8 months; not near long enough to get the kind of depth thats needed but it was still insightful and liberating in its truncated form.

resistance is a huge factor in the process and i fought it like most, maybe with a subconscious disadvantage stemming from an inbred fear of "the world".

cognizant dissident

I have been in counselling for over a year now. It's actually more of a teacher/mentor relationship now. My counselor stressed very strongly to me that he wasn't a "therapist" but a counselor. I asked him what was the difference? He said, "therapy is for sick people and there is not a damn thing wrong with you!" What I have learned over the course of a year is there is not a damn thing wrong with any of us really except that we have been taught over and over and over again, and had it pounded it to our brains by the JW system that there is something very wrong with us and if only we worked a little longer and prayed a little harder we would be "fixed/saved/perfect".

It is a radical concept to think that we are actually OK just the way we are and it is religious teaching that is making us feel guilty and bad and wrong and depressed. Once you embrace the idea, though, it is very enlightening. Literally, you feel lighter, freer and happier. No weeping and nashing of teeth required when you leave the JW's. Suffering is optional.

Cog

27

When money goes missing... what do you do?

by Scully in

so i've got this jam jar of american coins and small bills that i've been squirrelling away for my next shopping trip south of the border.

just the other day, monday, i acquired a $20us bill and added it to my stash... and when i went to add some more coins to it this morning, the $20 bill was missing.. i'm pretty sure it was one of my teenagers.

they come into my room and do their makeup and use my bathroom on a regular basis.

cognizant dissident

I'm going to be the lone holdout and say that I think it is very unfair to punish both teens when you don't know who did it. No where else in life would this be acceptable. If money went missing from petty cash at work, would it be OK for the boss to dock everybody's paycheck for the amount missing? If money went missing at school, would it be OK with you if the teacher punished all the kids without knowing who did it? If breakins happen in a neighbourhood and the police don't know who did it, is it OK to arrest everybody? Of course not.

I believe you should swallow the loss and lock up your money until you have more evidence of who the guilty party is. Sometimes, parents think they can tell who is guilty by their facial expressions and manners but sometimes they are just dead wrong about this. A perfect example of this is how your suspicion fell on the teen who protested the loudest and another poster's suspicion fell on the teen who was quiet and didn't say anything. It is mainly a matter of interpretation. This body language means such and such. But this is very subjective and different for different people.

My parents were always accusing me of things I didn't do when I was a teen without any evidence. Just on suspicion alone. Then when I would get upset or cry at the unfairness of it, they would say that was proof I was guilty. If I was innocent, I wouldn't get so upset! (This made no sense to me whatsoever!)

Trust works both ways. Trust in a parent to be fair can also be eroded as it was in my case. One time, alcohol and food was stolen from our house and all the empties thrown into my room. My parents punished my brother and I both until the culprit came forward. They suspected it was me but were waiting for me to confess. Actually, it turned out to be a neighbour kid who had seen me leave the house to visit someone and had put a ladder in the yard up to an open window. The kid confessed to me later thinking it was a big funny joke. My parents never apologized for wrongly accusing us.

You said yourself that you don't feel right about accusing either of them without more proof, so why do you feel right about punishing them? Isn't punishing worse than accusing? My point is, you just don't really know, so better to hold off judgement and punishement until you do know for sure.

Cog

38

If someone told you they would give you $10 M,,,,,, if you,,,,,,

by AK - Jeff in

just closed your eyes, threw a dart at the world map, and would have to take the 10 million, get on a plane within the hour, move to that location, and never look back, contact your friends or relatives again.

no rule changes.

you can take your mate and/or minor children, but can tell no one else.

cognizant dissident

No. Family and friends are priceless. If I had 10 million I'd want to share it with all my loved ones

You've obviously never met my family! I'd do it in a minute!

Cog

ps: do I have to take my husband?

25

JUST FOR FUN: Pranks you've played (computer or other)

by SnakesInTheTower in

jw
friends

so the post from firenbandits http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/134960/1.ashx and the subsequent story reply had me thinking this would be a fun thread.. to start, i've copied a couple of the replies that were on that thread that had me dying laughing....and then one of my own.

what's the greatest prank you pulled or you seen pulled on someone (or pulled on you?)...

hope this brings smiles and lots of replies..... snakesinthetower (of the prankster sheep .

cognizant dissident

My first job, at 18, was in the accounting dept of a life insurance co. One day at lunch, my supervisor shows me all these games in a "dead file' that only managers have the password to. So, I watched over her shoulder as she punched in the password. Got it.

Then on my lunchbreak, another day, I was bored and decided to play some games. I see my supervisor walking down the corridor making for my cubicle. So I pressed escape to quickly get out of the incriminating dead file. Nothing happened. Poker game still up on screen. She is getting closer and closer and I'm starting to sweat so I start randomly pushing buttons all over my keyboard. Finally, the screen goes black. Whew! Close call! No need to explain how I got the secret password.

The only problem was, every computer terminal on the entire floor was linked and all had gone blank. I had somehow inadvertently crashed the entire system on that floor. It took the programmers all afternoon to get the system up and running. Towards the end of the day, the programmers are coming up to my cubicle and asking me what I had been doing when the system crashed, why was I in the dead file? I was so afraid I was going to be fired. How the hell they could tell I didn't know, but I just played totally stupid and told them I didn't know what they were talking about. Sometimes, being new and cute and 18 works in your favor!

Cog

25

JUST FOR FUN: Pranks you've played (computer or other)

by SnakesInTheTower in

jw
friends

so the post from firenbandits http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/134960/1.ashx and the subsequent story reply had me thinking this would be a fun thread.. to start, i've copied a couple of the replies that were on that thread that had me dying laughing....and then one of my own.

what's the greatest prank you pulled or you seen pulled on someone (or pulled on you?)...

hope this brings smiles and lots of replies..... snakesinthetower (of the prankster sheep .

cognizant dissident

When I was 13 and my brother was 15 we were waiting outside the bookstudy group house for my dad (elder) to stop talking and drive us home. We only lived one long block away but we drove for some silly reason. So, after the 3rd time going inside to hurry my dad up, he told us just to walk home. Why didn't we think of that? Better yet, we decided to take the car with us! Neither of us could drive and we didn't have the keys, so we put it in neutral and my brother pushed while I steered the car down the street and into the driveway. (It was a very flat block) We thought this was hilarious!

Not content with that, we walked back up the street to the bookstudy house and went back inside to wait inside with my dad to finish talking. That way when he went out and saw the car gone he wouldn't suspect us. So, he finally finished up, goes outside and sees his car is gone. My brother and I helpfully suggest maybe somebody stole it while we were all inside visiting. My dad marches down the street angrily cussing and reviewing what he is going to tell the police when he gets home to call them. He was walking so fast, we couldn't keep up to him, which was just as well, because we could barely keep a straight face behind him. He was in such a foul rage he didn't even notice the car in our driveway until he was actually up to the house! Then my brother and I burst out laughing. He was actually so impressed with our practical joke and so relieved his car wasn't stolen, that we didn't even get beat for that one!

Cog

41

Told To Buy Emergency Kits ...Ever Heard of This?

by TheKings in

a couple months ago my jw mom told me that in all the book study groups for their congregation they were told to go out and by emergency kits because "things were getting so bad".

i restrained myself from rolling my eyes.

has anyone else heard of this happening?

cognizant dissident

The emegency kits suggested by the society are not a rumor. In my area of BC, all the congregations were given a list by the BOE of everything that we should have ready. I saw the list myself when my husband brought it home. It is a standard emergency list. Every family was also given a paper to fill out with all their emergency contact info, including work, home and cell numbers. They were asked to hand them in to their book study conductors. I didn't keep the list, but I will try to see if I can get another copy from my husband.

COG

26

KOOL-AID.. Need info please

by AlphaOmega in

okay, here goes.... i've seen many many many references to kool-aid here, such as "don't drink the kool-aid" etc etc but i can't work out what it's all about.. but, my imagination tells me that maybe someone went to a memorial meal, "partook of the emblems" and discovered that it wasn't wine, but kool-aid.. am i right or is there something else going on?.

.

cognizant dissident

Kool-Aid is a reference to the poison kool-aid that infamous cult leader Jim Jones had his followers drink en-masse in the Jones town massacre in Guyana in the 1970's. Younger people would probably not immediately get this reference if they were born after 1970 or too young to remember it in the news. Hundreds of men, women and children were killed.

Jim Jones started out as a regular evangelical preacher, who was very charismatic and develped quite a following after himself. He started to try and assert more and more control over his church and eventually started an isolated commune of sorts called "Jonestown" in the jungle of Guyana. He became more and more egomaniacal and paranoid and many allegations of abuse were leveled at him by the families of some of his followers. They claimed they were being held by force and not allowed to leave. Some journalist and a senator I believe came to Jonestown to check it out and as they were about to board the plane to fly back to the states, Jim Jones had them shot. He knew then it would only be a matter of time before the authorities came for him, so he put into effect a mass suicide plan for the commune. They served the children the poison kool-aid first, then the parents, and so on up the heirarachy. Some people tried to flee into the jungle and were shot. (A few might have escaped, I can't remember). When the authorities did come they just found a mass of dead bodies. There have been a few movies made about it. You can check the video store archives if you are interested. It is a fascinating story.

The analogy is used to compare the watchtower doctrine as similiar death-dealing "poison". This analogy may seem a stretch to some, but in reality, witnesses are willing to sacrifice their very lives and their children's lives to follow the society doctrine on blood transfusions even though they make no medical sense and no other relgion in the world views the bible's dietary sanctions on blood as applying to life saving blood transfusions. By signing the no blood cards, witnesses are agreeing in advance, in writing, to "drink the kool-aid" that the society gives them, in any flavor or color, they choose to serve it.

Hope this helps

Cog