"We got a taste of what a normal life could be like."
That alone is so very powerful!
Posts by BrentR
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20Any help with 8 year old still in?
by megsmomma ini am very sad that i am in this situation.
it is pretty much my own fault that i have this situation...but i didn't know at the time what all the consequenses would entail.
(i got real ddepressed and left my jw husband and da'd myself after i had a baby with him) my daughter is a happy well adjusted kid with a new jw mom and an elder dad.
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21
Jehovah`s Witness Memory Loss.....BrainWashed or Selective Memory
by OUTLAW inhow many times have we meet jehovah`s witness`s that could`t remember what they preached years earlyer?..they will down right deny it,until you stick thier own literature under thier nose..some say it`s because of brainwashing,some say it`s selective memory....what causes memory loss in jehovah`s witness`s?.....outlaw
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BrentR
My enlightenment started happening when I was in my grandma's basement and found some publications from the early fifties. Just some quick casual reading and I had to check that this was indeed a WTS book. The info was so completely alien to what I knew at the time (mid 80's) that I started wondering how much is going to change in the next few decades?
That was the straw that started to break my camel back. After that I had more and more suspicions.
I say they use brainwashing without any doubt. Thier own publications advocate "inculcating" the info and to start with kids at a very young age. Making sure that kids have no iddle time to be distracted by worldly influences.
I have a friend that is a psychologist and out of curiosity I started asking her about a hypthetical religion without betraying which one. She said that is brainwashing without any doubt. Granted she is only one of many in her profession but I am convinced especially since I was born into it.
If it is not brainwashing then why it is so very hard to leave them?
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27
How do I deal with my hatred?
by nicolaou ini know that thousands of you have gone through the same thing i'm facing but right now it doesn't help.
i know that some of you have faced much worse - losing family through the blood issue or having to deal with abuse and i know that in comparison my problems may seem not so severe but as bad as it sounds knowing all that just doesn't matter right now.. it started yesterday and there's no stopping it, the official shunning.
one member of the family right now will see the month end with me losing my sisters, brother and my mum.. i love them and i know that in a sense they are victims too but i just cannot reach them.
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BrentR
I would also agree with the earlier post about having a longterm plan and turning the anger energy into positive energy. There is that saying that eating well is the best revenge. With the JW's it is living well is the best revenge. They spend alot of time telling the followers how miserable and depressed you will be if you leave and to an exent it's true. But it really screws things up when they see you prospering and expereincing a deep lasting happiness along with a successful career.
You become the living proof that they are lying. Every time I run into a JW friend thay always ask how I am doing. We know what thier motivation is for asking. They are hoping to hear that you are in a shambles and have become an emotional wreck. That is when I am more then happy to tell them of every accomplishment and success. I can see the surprise and or shock in thier face because they don't want you to be happy, succesful and productive. Remember your the "bad person" now and you should be reaping all of the consequences, but your not. They really, really hate that, it ruins the whole charade.
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20
Any help with 8 year old still in?
by megsmomma ini am very sad that i am in this situation.
it is pretty much my own fault that i have this situation...but i didn't know at the time what all the consequenses would entail.
(i got real ddepressed and left my jw husband and da'd myself after i had a baby with him) my daughter is a happy well adjusted kid with a new jw mom and an elder dad.
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BrentR
You are in a very unique position to act as an ambassador to her. Your not a JW but you are her mom and she will listen to you and believe you even if others tell her not to. Your hands are tied right now somewhat but as she becomes an adult and her thought process starts to mature and grow you will be the first person in her life that she will feel comfortable in talking with.
I did not have that as a JW kid and did not have anyone that I could trust to answer questions that I was afraid to ask my parents. She has someone, YOU. Your daughter is also going to need someone to be there when and if she does choose to leave.
When I left I was twenty and I did not have anyone that was not a JW that I could trust in the way I could trust my mom or dad.
Just BE THERE for her whether or not she decides to leave them. She allready has an advantage that I did not have. I still left anyway and only had a handful of friends for support, that was all I needed.
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142
THE BACK PEDDLING HAS ALREADY BEGUN......
by Mary inas i mentioned before in another thread, my dub aunt, along with several other witnesses, told me that they were specifically told that the governing body let it be known that tract work would trigger the beginning of the end by infuriating the other religions and somehow causing the governments to "turn on babylon the great".
this was supposed to start before the end of this year.
one thing i mentioned is that they were smart enough this time, not to put anything down in writing, but simply let it get around by "word of mouth".
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BrentR
I never got this tract. But then again they know me and oh so very well. I am that guy that gives them the serious run around every time they call on me. They are so conditioned to expecting the "I am not interested" comeback that when I appear to be very interested they get a double crush when they quickly realize how many years I was JW and that I can handle any tactic.
It has been three years since they have been to my house. And that was an elder special opps mission because my uncle realizes he can't get to me. I laugh when I realize that even thier hand picked special forces team is useless. Sometimes I think that at the local KH they have a wall of posters, sort of a ten most wanted list and I am somewhere on the top row.
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My reign of fading is over :-(
by Dune ini wake up this morning, thinking that it'll be a good day.
i'll be studying for a couple of hours then going to see apocalypto.
i wanted to be out of the house by 11am.
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BrentR
Just for the record I have no remorse or misgivings about leaving them. Every aspect of my life has improved since then. When you can get out and do it without any fear then you know you made the right decision, you won't have any questions or afterthoughts. When the time comes YOU WILL KNOW IT and it will be crystal clear.
If you do it before that time you are vulnerable and they know that and will use it against you.
I can honestly say that it was only one of a handfull of decisions I made in my life that I was 100% certain of. For me that is very rare. If only all the rest of the decisions I will have to make in my life can be as simple and clear.
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25
Letter from GB to all Congregations
by sspo inthis morning i found out that last night at the service meeting, a letter was read from the society to a nearby congr.
about the danger of the internet.. they warned all the dubs about being on the internet because many are being influenced fom apostate websites and pornography.. does anyone else have the details of what was said and read?.
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BrentR
I meant DUB's How do you edit your posts here?
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25
Letter from GB to all Congregations
by sspo inthis morning i found out that last night at the service meeting, a letter was read from the society to a nearby congr.
about the danger of the internet.. they warned all the dubs about being on the internet because many are being influenced fom apostate websites and pornography.. does anyone else have the details of what was said and read?.
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BrentR
I am very new to these forums and I need a little help with the acronyms.
GB? Governing body?
GUBA?
I have been away for over twenty years so I am a bit out of the loop on thier lingo.
Apostate. I have always gotten a chuckle out of that word. How do you know if you are one? Do you go get apostate exam to find out? Does it hurt? Does insurance cover it? Inquiring minds want to know!
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14
My reign of fading is over :-(
by Dune ini wake up this morning, thinking that it'll be a good day.
i'll be studying for a couple of hours then going to see apocalypto.
i wanted to be out of the house by 11am.
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BrentR
I made a game out of it because I knew thier tactics and they had no strategy against me. They knew I was stringing them along and it PO'd them even worse. They had nothing to DF me with and I was very careful not to give them any ammo. Moving just out one congregation's territory also works very well and will give you a huge logistics and tactical advantage.
I made a cat&mouse game out of it and frustrated them to no end. They gave up on me because from all apearences I was screwing with them and nobody likes that even the JW's. The advantage to this tactic is years later if I cross paths with one of them I can still throw the plastic "How are doing? It's great to see you yada yada yada" and all they can do is smile (plastic also). They have never come right out and asked if I was attending meetings, instead they ask leading questions like "so what congregation are in now?" I tell them that I live in _______ congregation and they have to figure out if that means I just live there or if I am actually going to the meetings.
You can with a little preparation play so many games with them that they will go out of thier way to avoid you. Don't ever ask to put on the "do not call list" that will take alot of the fun out of it. Instead ask the typical and very taboo questions that you know they cannot answer. That tactic is far more effective when it comes to measuring the frustration factor.
Who knows, you may end up triggering the independant thought process in one of them and then they will be the ones trying to answer the tough questions to themselves.
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12
Regrets for becoming a JW
by sinis inwell, i have been thinking lately how f@cked the jw have left me, in a sense, though i was raised in the "truth".
first off, my grandfather was df'd when i was 12, will never forget as it was the first night i gave a talk on the school.
he was df'd for chewing tabacco.
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BrentR
Sinis, your story is so very similar to mine and probably many others. I am also a craddle JW so at least it was not my choice to be part of them. But every day I think about how much different things would have been had I not spent my first twenty years of life with them.
I found that I can now cultivate true friends, think on my own, have an opinion and know that I am not being judged daily by a group of old men with a power and control complex. That is very, very therapuetic. However each time I think about how many hours I spent going to meetings, assemblies, bible study, door knocking etc I still get angry even though I know I can't change history and can only look ahead.
This is my first post here and I am so very glad I found a place were everyone knows my story allready. Even though no one here has even met me my story is pretty much the same as the rest of you.
Just talking with all of you is going be a huge step for me to continue on in life. I willing to bet alot of forum members here had a period of isolation and being able to talk with others is so important. A forum like this is truly a worst case scenario for the "JW powers to be". It defeats so many of thier isolationist, segregationist and alienating tactics. This forum is certainly a digital coup in thier book(s).