Pickled

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Posts by Pickled

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  26

  alternative medicine/healing...tried any? is it nuts?

  by oompa in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have gone to chiropractors for years...and some are pathetic quacks....some really help me.

  i had severe tendonitis in my elbow and tried reg.

  doctors for six months...was helped more in one visit to a acupuncturist!

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  Pickled

  I don't know about energy fields, but I do know a great home remedy for a bad cough.
  
  Take a big handful of laxatives, and you will be too afraid to cough.
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  24

  Minding your own business (JW mind control)

  by MsMcDucket in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  here i am an apostate that just found out that an elder's 18-year-old daughter is dating an unbeliever.

  i don't know why this is bothering me!?

  is it because i want to call them and cause trouble?

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  Pickled

  MsMcDucket.....You have to let them sit out in the sun for a few days first......;-)
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  24

  Minding your own business (JW mind control)

  by MsMcDucket in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  here i am an apostate that just found out that an elder's 18-year-old daughter is dating an unbeliever.

  i don't know why this is bothering me!?

  is it because i want to call them and cause trouble?

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  Pickled

  OTWO, I like your little flame Icon. It makes me laugh every time I see it.
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  24

  Minding your own business (JW mind control)

  by MsMcDucket in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  here i am an apostate that just found out that an elder's 18-year-old daughter is dating an unbeliever.

  i don't know why this is bothering me!?

  is it because i want to call them and cause trouble?

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  Pickled

  I don't know your situation but what you're saying doesn't sound strange.
  
  It sounds like when the Principal sends you to detention for running in the hall, and then later you find out he is having an affair with the Librarian. Makes you want to egg his house.
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  41

  Stuck in the "Truth"

  by IMustBreakAway in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i notice from comments posted that many here who post (and untold scores who lurk) are still "in".

  perhaps their social / family circles are too constricted for freedom of mind, and or, they are too afraid to rock the boat.

  or too young to strike out on their own and are dependent on jw parents for support.

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  Pickled

  The most difficult thing about a cult is that the cult member has been stripped of all options except the one to which they find themselves tethered. It is actually not the post they are tethered to that causes all the despair, it is the picture that has been painted for them describing what they will have to look forward to if they ever take the tether off and leave.
  
  In an effort to avoid that painful scenario their lives become a daily walk in the circle created by their restraints. The camaraderie they experience among their peers offers hope and reinforces the idea that their predicament is so much better than what would be waiting for them on the outside. Examples are generally offered that have to do with birds leaving their cages only to want back in after they discover in a frightening way just how bad it is outside of the cage.
  
  But the most devastating of all of these things is when the one tethered becomes entirely convinced that even God Himself, their creator of the universe and of their very person, even He can only be found within the safety of that same gilded cage. The turmoil is in the believing that to leave the cage is to abandon God.
  
  If all of humanity were to experience a sudden extinction, this planet, the stars, the entire universe has already been designed to continue its’ course even without our presence, even without our coming and going. Our presence adds nothing to this cycle and our absence would subtract nothing from the seasons and the tides. We are also part of that design, a member of those things created. If it has been said that if we remain silent the rocks themselves would cry out, or if there was a time when all the stars sang together, or if there is a source of light that exceeds the light of the Sun, then who is it that has caused you to believe that this same designer can only inhabit the cage of their limited knowledge? This certainly has to be the biggest lie of all. If truth was designed to set you free, then the question must be asked about why so many representations of the truth are designed in the form of a cage.
  
  It may be a lifelong journey of mine to find the true nature and identity of this designer, and that lifetime is all I have of true value to offer in exchange for the knowing. If I spend my life disregarding the beauty of the design in search of a cage that fits me best, then haven’t I missed the only chance to actually see the nature of this designer?
  
  The despair does not come when we look for God, the despair comes when we climb inside the cage and shut him out.
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  41

  Stuck in the "Truth"

  by IMustBreakAway in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i notice from comments posted that many here who post (and untold scores who lurk) are still "in".

  perhaps their social / family circles are too constricted for freedom of mind, and or, they are too afraid to rock the boat.

  or too young to strike out on their own and are dependent on jw parents for support.

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  Pickled

  IMBA, then stay if you have truly exhausted all other avenues of direction. Just make sure you are not sitting in a chair starving to death just because no one has delivered to you a map to the grocery store. The religion you are in is all about being fed. Being fed a constant and unending supply of food that is delivered right to your hands along with the instructions about how to eat it. You have been eating from that vending machine for a long time without ever having to participate in a hunting party. Stay and resolve to work hard to figure out whether or not the food you are eating is healthy, or junk. But work at it.
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  41

  Stuck in the "Truth"

  by IMustBreakAway in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i notice from comments posted that many here who post (and untold scores who lurk) are still "in".

  perhaps their social / family circles are too constricted for freedom of mind, and or, they are too afraid to rock the boat.

  or too young to strike out on their own and are dependent on jw parents for support.

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  Pickled

  Yes, but "keeping" one from leaving is very different from "causing" someone to want to stay. Even in the worst relationships people stay because they believe they love the one they are with.
  
  So what's up with the 61% mass exodus?
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  41

  Stuck in the "Truth"

  by IMustBreakAway in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i notice from comments posted that many here who post (and untold scores who lurk) are still "in".

  perhaps their social / family circles are too constricted for freedom of mind, and or, they are too afraid to rock the boat.

  or too young to strike out on their own and are dependent on jw parents for support.

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  Pickled

  IMBA, why not use the Society's standards for how you leave?
  
  If you were a devout Catholic and your entire close knit and loving family had a long history of faithfulness to the Catholic church with all of your lives built around those teachings...you would be expected to work hard toward reaching that moment when you began to find all of that and all of them repulsive. You would be expected to leave them all behind in your quest for the truth regardless of what it cost and regardless of the pain it might cause you, or them.
  
  You would be commended for your willingness to separate yourself from them, and encouraged to not look back but only for the sake of hopefully and eventually compelling some of them to also break away from everything they once knew and follow you to the Kingdom Hall.
  
  You would be expected to become an Apostate of Catholicism, and an Apostate to your family. The pain or sorrow you felt would not be taken into consideration, and only your single minded faithfulness to these new realizations about the truth would be acknowledged. After all, looking back is a sign of a divided mind, and there is no time for grieving when there is so much work to do.
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  4

  "Captives of a Concept" Don Cameron Interview

  by Pickled in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  here is a link to a youtube interview with don cameron, author of the book "captives of a concept" .

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  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkgwzrhgi6m .

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  Pickled

  OTWO, I thought it was a really good interview also. I like the way the book is arranged too, very easy to read and understand.
  
  You're welcome CoCo. When I first started studying the WTBTS teachings, I thought everything was so clear and well outlined. So I thought that it was meant to be viewed logically and in a way that could be followed step by step. But I was wrong. It is only meant to be followed in a way that is prearranged, and not designed at all in a way that can remain logical when exposed to the truth. Whenever an attempt is made to make a logical comparison, that is when every answer starts to form a giant circle, and each response becomes more and more vague with many twists and turns. If you persist, then Phase II begins, and that is when the listener begins to distract from the truth being presented by attacking your motives.
  
  It seems that the teachings were designed to repel the truth. The methods are designed to effectively maneuver away from all logic and reason. The "Reasoning" book that is the bible for door to door ministry is designed to effectively offer a prearranged answer in the hope that the member will not be tempted to engage their own personal reasoning abilities. It makes it appear as though the minister is an empty vessel apart from a script that they have been given and memorized.
  
  An example of this is if you ask if they believe that the Governing Body is the "faithful and discrete slave" as repeated so often in all of their literature, and based on Matthew 24....the answer will be YES.
  
  Then if you ask if the date of that appointment occurred in 1919 as indicated clearly and repeatedly in all of their literature....the answer will be YES.
  
  Then if you ask if that appointment was based on proper teachings (food) at the proper time....the answer will be YES.
  
  Then if you ask if the teachings that Jesus was inspecting were the teachings leading up to and including 1919....the answer will be YES.
  
  Then if you ask why then did Jesus approve those teaching if the Proclaimers book, as well as other places in their literature, has stated that many of those teachings during that time of the inspection were WRONG.....no answer.
  
  Then you ask if they were not providing the proper food (teachings) at the proper time (in 1919 they still did not believe that Jesus' presence began in 1914, but instead in 1874) how could they have possibly qualified to receive that appointment......no answer.
  
  Then you ask if part of those qualifications were to be able to recognize the master when he comes knocking, and if they did not even know at that time that he was knocking at all, how did they become approved without even being aware of the process.....no answer.
  
  Then if you ask them how the WTBTS society is that "faithful and discrete slave" today when no other inspection occurred since 1919 when they were not providing the proper food....no answer.
  
  This is when all the memorizing and all the circular reasoning begins and the hearer of these particular and obvious truths starts to use all the tools available to repel the truth. It is not the "truth" that is the goal, it is defending "The Organization" that is the goal regardless of what the actual truth may be.
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  4

  "Captives of a Concept" Don Cameron Interview

  by Pickled in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  here is a link to a youtube interview with don cameron, author of the book "captives of a concept" .

  .

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkgwzrhgi6m .

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  Pickled

  Here is a link to a YouTube interview with Don Cameron, author of the book "Captives of a Concept"
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKGWzrHgI6M