I read it a couple of years ago - The Power of Now. Great book - I got a lot out of it. I was struck by his description of what happened when he becamed enlightened. He said he sat on a park bench and laughed for a couple of years. I found that believable somehow - I think if there is such a thing as "enlightenment" it might strike a person that way. I thought it was interesting too that he said it is possible for the whole human race to screw it all up and not reach enlightenment - depressing but it seems true to me. No guarantees for the human race anyway, eventually our solar system is going to spin into a black hole and disappear. Thanks for reminding me of the book - I think I'll dig it out and read it again.
Hortensia
JoinedPosts by Hortensia
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Has anyone read any Echart Tolle?
by new boy in"the power of now".
"a new earth".
i must say both books blew me away.......................life changing!
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Have You Been Ambushed?
by karnage ini was at a gas station the other day, and while i was pumping the fuel into my suv, i noticed a man standing at the far end of the gas station.
i looked over at him, and he was dressed in khaki pants and a white shirt with a tie.
i continued pumping my gas and then all of a sudden, the guy was behind me.
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Hortensia
My husband and I were having a nice weekend in San Simeon watching the elephant seals. We were the only people on the beach. A man drove up in a nice car and parked. Jumped out, dressed in a suit, with a plastic smile, headed our way. I told my husband, that's a JW and I'm not letting him spoil my day. So when he walked up I just asked him if he was a JW and when he said yes I told him I wasn't interested and didn't want to discuss anything with him. My husband thinks I was rude - he was never a JW - but also he has a warped sense of humor and likes to string the JWs along in long strange conversations. He would cheerfully have talked to the guy for hours. Yuck! So yes, we have been ambushed.
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Why does it seem to be unhappy people who are attracted to the JWs?
by new boy ini have had time to think about this........... i was an attendent for many years.......... and looking up and down the rows at every family that was seating there in the khs........... no one was happy!.
i think of my mother (who brought this religion into our house)......she was one of the most unhappy and miserable people you would ever meet!
she was a spiritual orphan with few friends and no real family to speak of.. she got the "good news" back in 1950, that "the world" was a bad place and god, would soon be killing most everyone......she was thrilled!...............
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Hortensia
"anewme" said:
It gets to people where they are hurting. Many people are unhappy and the Watchtower gives them the hope that by joining the religion their troubles will end and their hopes will come true. In reality of course joining the JW religion only compounds and adds to a person's problems and stresses and challenges. You still have your handicaps but now you have to get your butt out in service every month and to the convention somehow once a year. You still have your depression and your unhappy home life but now you have prayer, Bible reading, meetings and field service to help you cope. And by staying uneducated and maintaining a low wage job you will not be sidetracked and distracted by material things, leisure activities and vacations you cannot afford anyway.
It's so true. Those who are converted start out unhappy, thinking the WTBTS has something that will help them. Those who are raised in the organization are unhappy because it's a hideously repressive unfair cult where they are watched all the time and punished at the drop of a hat.
I remember when I was very depressed, in my 20s, and I finally went to a doctor and then saw a counsellor and a psychiatrist. It helped so much, but one of the congregation asked me why I was doing that. I said it was because I wasn't happy. She said, " no one else is happy either. Why should you be so special? We'll be happy in the new world."
So, after a while I faded out of view, of course, but still was unhappy until I saw a bumper sticker that said "Since I gave up hope I feel better." I laughed when I saw that and it was like a thunderbolt of enlightenment. They are unhappy because they are always postponing their hopes and dreams, postponing happiness. Once I gave up the JW "hope" I became a much happier person.
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What emotions were you feeling as you started reading the posts on JWD?
by What-A-Coincidence inmy reaction: shock and awe (tm).
i was an elder and had just left bethel.
i didn't want to believe what i was reading especially from current and former elders.
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Hortensia
The book that helped me the most was Visions of Glory by Barbara Harrison. I drifted away from the JWs and got some good counselling so that I was able to work through the guilt feelings and despair I felt for a long time. Got some distance and understanding of the whole scene. However, I felt alone for a long time, no one to talk with about this background as there is no point in talking with active JWs who have securely closed minds, and others outside the organization didn't understand and couldn't relate. Then I met an ex-JW in Wyoming who spotted me for what I was and gave me a copy of Visions of Glory. Thank goodness - it freed me from the last of the mind control of the organization. That was about 20 years ago, I think. Recently I was glad to find these posts and this forum because having someone to talk with is still a problem. I have a friend who was a JW years ago and we talk about how we grew up and what it did to us. It's very cathartic to just talk about it all.
As for the rest, once I realized I just plain don't believe the Bible, all that argument about doctrine didn't interest me. None of it is true, so why waste time disputing it? I don't care what JWs believe, I just feel sorry for their children and their other victims. It's an organization that does terrible damage with an amazing sense of the righteousness of their actions. If there is a god, which I doubt, JWs will be very very surprised on the last day.
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What emotions were you feeling as you started reading the posts on JWD?
by What-A-Coincidence inmy reaction: shock and awe (tm).
i was an elder and had just left bethel.
i didn't want to believe what i was reading especially from current and former elders.
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Hortensia
I also have been out of the org. for over 20 years, so no heavy duty emotions as that is all over. I can relate to the experiences I am reading, though, having been through it all long ago. Mostly I am enjoying having a place where I can dish dirt on the JWs. I was recently reunited with a friend I lost track of about 40 years ago (she was disfellowshipped and disappeared) and we have thoroughly enjoyed sharing our experiences and finding out what happened to people we knew years ago. And we loooooooove talking bad about the WTBTS. I wish I knew what happened to Charlotte Moss, though, from long ago. If anyone knows what became of her, and if it is OK to share that info on the forum (?) I'd love to know where she is and how she is. Hortensia
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Menopause/Hormone Imbalance -- Need Girlfriend Advice!
by cruzanheart inhere's the situation: i'm 51 and had a hysterectomy a year ago.
i'm on premarin.
physically i feel fine but mentally i'm kind of foggy-headed, over-emotional sometimes and detached at others, and, um, not entirely reasonable a good bit of the time.
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Hortensia
Find a good acupuncturist. The acupuncturist can create a blend of herbs for you that will alleviate many of your symptoms. Many of these herbs have now been studied scientifically, as well as having been used for many centuries in China. They work - I took them and had a totally symptom-free menopause. Get your herbs from your acupuncturist or directly from a company like Mayway (mayway.com) that guarantees the quality of the herbs.
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Living with family who believe that you deserve to die
by jambon1 ini always had a problem with the idea that everyone except jw`s deserves to die at armageddon.
i used to think; "what about all the really nice people?
mrs so and so, my magazine call.
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Hortensia
Oh yes, I wanted to say - you are a nice person and anyone but a JW would recognize that. To them being a decent person, responsible, kind and so forth, doesn't count. What counts is lip service to the party line and the appearance of righteousness. Be happy you are who you are, and when they say something outrageous, call them on it in a pleasant straightforward way. They belong to a religion that makes it OK not to love people.
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Living with family who believe that you deserve to die
by jambon1 ini always had a problem with the idea that everyone except jw`s deserves to die at armageddon.
i used to think; "what about all the really nice people?
mrs so and so, my magazine call.
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Hortensia
Here is a funny story: I dropped out of the WTBTS/JWs years ago. I married a Presbyterian man (I don't believe in any religion so it's all one to me.) My mother and her husband came to the wedding, sort of. They stood outside the church and watched through the window! You can imagine how that puzzled our friends, but they didn't say much about it. They knew my folks were JWs. Then my mother and her husband spend some time that weekend with us and our friends. My husband recalls seeing my stepfather grinning and having a good time until a glare from my mother killed his smile. I remember my mother saying, with real shock, "why, your friends are NICE." I had a good laugh about it all...how funny. My mother seemed able to hold two contradictory feelings at the same time - on the one hand Jehovah is going to kill off everyone on earth except a relatively few JWs, killing even some of those JWs who "think they are righteous but aren't." On the other hand, she obviously loved her apostate children, and had no trouble associating with us. "But, mom, you're talking about us when you talk about everyone being killed at Armageddon." She would change the subject. Does anyone remember hearing the following idea at one of the meetings? The speaker was discussing how Jehovah could kill little children along with their parents. Why wouldn't Jehovah have pity on the little children? The speaker said, baby rattlesnakes are still snakes. My sister says I imagined it, but I remember how shocking I felt that was. My poor mother has passed on and was faithful to the end. In the end, I was glad of it, as it would have been tragic, I think, for her to realize at the end of her life what a huge lie and terrible waste of time it all was. She died confidently expecting to see her mother and father and her husband in the resurrection. I don't believe any of it, and being raised in that religion was a disaster - I can't tell you all the horrible things that happened to me. But I escaped fortunately and they don't have any control over me now. This has been a rather rambling post - sorry.
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Out of Mythic into Rational consciousness, the EX-JW Journey
by jst2laws ini have been absent much for almost a year, reading, learning and breaking out of boxes, figuratively.
i'm hoping that sharing some thoughts and asking some questions might be fun, and maybe helpful for a few.
have you wondered how two people can look at the same information, go through the same experience as you, perhaps even be party to the same conversation yet come away with an entirely different perception?
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Hortensia
This discussion is a little deep for me, but here is my own experience. When a former JW friend (that is, she's a former JW and now a friend) asked me when I realized I didn't believe what the JWs teach, I realized that I never believed it. I was a people pleaser, and very focused on studying and knowing all the answers. I had a bible that was cross-referenced to a fair-thee-well, very impressive to the others in the congregation. It was ego on my part, especially as there was no praise or approval for anything else. What a critical, judgemental bunch they are! But that's an aside. I never believed any of it; I just didn't question it. I was third generation JW, so non-critical thinking was engrained in the family. It wasn't until I got out of it and starting questioning what I had been taught that I realized what a mind-control cult it is, and I started looking at scientific information with more interest. The thing that interests me now is something that my ex-JW friend first brought up - it looks as though our entire solar system is spinning into a black hole and will be either destroyed or changed into something entirely different millions of years from now. So much for living forever on the earth. Now when I think of the junk that I used to preach, I just shake my head that I didn't question it earlier.
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How do you make friends once leaving the Borg?
by unhappy inso i'm starting the fading out now, and i'm avoiding all kh 'friends,' but am finding it a bit lonely, as was raised in org, and was always taught to shun worldly people even at school.
does anyone have any advice or experiences about how to overcome this?
how they met and made new friends in the beginning?
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Hortensia
Go to school and take a course in something that interests you. I went to massage school - ironically I had been interested in massage since I read an article about it in Awake when I was a kid. I met a lot of new people, broke the ice, made some friends, and also had a new way to make a living. If you don't want to go to a trade school, take some sort of course at the community college. I found out something really really important - these people are far better friends to me than any JW has ever been, including people I thought were my dearest friends. I am interested in the posts about fading out of the organization. I did it really easily - although I only realized how easy it was after the fact. I just moved to a new neighborhood and told the folks in the old KH that I was changing halls. Then I just never showed up at the new one. Evidently they don't communicate much between congregations. It was as if I ceased to exist, fine with me.