Posts by mindmelda

20

Mother who blackmails me into this BS

by cia112 in

jw
friends

well my mom has been a jw ever since i was 5 but was studying since before i was born, i am now 21 and hate every minute of it.

i could never stand it, she knows i dont like it but still makes me go preaching and go to the meetings and what not, your probably asking yourself why dont i just leave?

well shes the one who pays for my college and everything tht i need.

mindmelda

Hey, I think we have the same mom!

Sadly, your mother believes that she is saving your everlasting life by acting like a controlling maniac.

I just keep gently telling my mother that most of the world is not JWs, and doesn't get it, and you can't make them believe it.

I hope one day she'll actually believe that you can't convert anyone by bullying them or shoving it down their throats.

I'm 50 and I'm still going through that...you can't make Witnesses believe that it's not for everyone unless they have some amazing moment themselves where it ceases to make sense anymore. Sometimes that happens.

Things will improve when you're out of her house. She really can't tell you what to do in your own.

If it helps, your mother is wrong, and so is mine. If God wanted anyone to forcibly convert people, he'd have authorized violent means to do it. Mental and emotional force is really no different than physical, it's just as effective but makes people feel as if they're being "nice" about forcing you.

They're not. They're being just like anyone who holds a gun to your head and forces you to do something you don't want to do.

190

What's your personality type? Myers-Briggs test

by frankiespeakin in

take this 72 yes/no question test to find out.. http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp.

mindmelda

I'm ENFP...one of the rarer types. Rationals, NT and Idealists, NFs are a bit rarer.

I've had my whole family typed by a psychologist...but they're pretty much what I guessed they were.

Me-ENFP-I'm always tilting at windmills, that's probably the best way to describe the "advocate" or the "champion"personality I'm blessed/cursed with. ENFPs are generally considered either idealistic nutbars or insanely entertaining by most other people. I'm a little of both. My kids call me "Robin Williams with boobies". As a child, my parents were horrified when I'd get up on the table and tell jokes and sing to guests. I have a Traditional mother (ISTJ) who makes Martha Stewart look like a piker at homemaking and an Experiencer father who just plays golf constantly now that he's retired and that's pretty much his religion.

They used to ask me a lot if I wasn't adopted. LOL Seriously, I was so different from the rest of my family, (I have one Experiencer brother ISFP, just like my dad is) my dad would turn to my mom and ask her, "Do you remember where we got her...are you sure we brought home the right kid from the hospital, it was pretty busy that day?" Kind of a running family gag.

Yes, my mother and I are total opposites...which probably caused her no end of frustration. She still doesn't get me, and probably never will. We spend a lot of time talking about knitting and cake decorating, the few hobbies we have in common so we don't get into arguments over dirt.

My ambition is to be a writer who actually gets paid for writing, but I'm going back to college soon to finally finish a psych degree and maybe nursing. Probably both. I vant to help ze people on ze couch vit zer problems and tings.

Hubby-ISTP-yes, opposites attract, but that common "Perceiving" keeps us pretty mellow. We don't disagree too much. The "mechanic" type, my husband could fix the space shuttle if they'd let him study it a while. He's a natural engineer. A master plumber by training. He's working as an all purpose fix it man for a big rental company at the moment and loves fixing crap all day. Sounds like purgatory to me, but he loves it. *shrugs*

Oldest daughter who is 20. INTJ- LOL...she says she's the Spock to my Captain Kirk...(those fictional characters represent those two personality types pretty well) She's a very talented comic book artist who worries about the universe a lot (she draws dark angsty vampire goth stuff, not happy silly cartoons...she thinks Batman is just too damn cheerful). She has perfected the "roll your eyes at mom" thing after 20 years of practice. I remember when she was a year old, I had the distinct thought...boy this kid is nothing like me. And I thought it was great. Also interested in forensic science. I detect a "queen of the undead" theme here.

Son, who is an Aspie, by the way, so I don't know how that affects type if at all, who is 17- INTP...a total inventive dreamer, artist, computer geek. If he could build an android and marry it...he'd be happy as a pig in mud. Loves technology more than anything. Also has a very weird sense of humor and does a thousand voices...he can imitate nearly anyone he hears. We beg him. "Now do Arnold in "theTerminator"" and he does it perfectly. Actually, my daughter draws cartoons, they get together on the story boards, he animates them and does the voices...we may have a little Disney studios thing going here in a few years.

Youngest daughter, 14, is ISFJ, poor child. She probably feels like she's in a nuthouse, being the only Traditional. She and her dad just ignore us insane intuitives and go fishing a lot...LOL She's a natural with animals, and has trained our dogs to form a pyramid and recite Shakespeare...LOL well...pretty close. She's The Dog Whisperer Jr. Wants to be a vet tech...I think she'll be great at it.

18

The four stages of growth of JWD/JWN

by Lady Lee in

jw
friends

every now and then i think how nice it would be if the board could go back to the way it was in some earlier time of its existence.

when i was in university one of the main focuses of the counseling program i was in was group development and how it changes over time.

jwn is like any group.

mindmelda

I know it's probably not appreciated by everyone, and sometimes kind of rude and obnoxious, even vulgar, but the social, joking and humor threads are just so much fun here.

It reminds me that the Witnesses were pretty much a no fun zone in many ways. The restrictions on language and behavior and entertainment didn't teach us to be better people...we're like children who don't get to grow up and make our own decisions about those things. We just "behaved" because we were told to.

Keeping you in some ways like a dependent child is part of the brainwashing. You don't have to think for yourself about much, let Mommy and Daddy WTS do it for you. We'll tell you what to wear, what to say, what's entertaining, what's vulgar, what''s good and bad, and you just comply. And of course, there are punishments for non-compliance.

Sometimes the joking and humor gets pretty naughty and randy, but I know why. I know it offends some people, but hey, it's just such a RELIEF not to have someone looking over your shoulder, literally or metaphorically, about your behavior, language and entertainment all the time.

One of the things that got me out of the JW mindset was writing fiction. I'd always written and imagined stories as a child, and after the JW influence, that was so stifled in me. I couldn't write the stories in my head because they were all about "worldly" people and things.

So, about 12 years ago, I started writing fanfiction, which is kind of a crazy(but god it's fun!) subculture in and of itselt, but it gave me another culture to cross over into and leave the truly insane one of the JWs behind.

I wrote EVERYTHING...I wrote all those things I'd repressed for so many years. I wrote hard core erotica, gay and straight, and mysteries and fantasies and science fiction and about the lives of Japanese samurai and fairy tales and all that stuff I'd been told for years was BAD!

I started writing political/ religious humor on a blog and a forum I started with an atheist friend, who has remained my friend through all these changes. We'd piss people off, and it felt great. We'd get into interesting and enlightening conversations about all sorts of deep things...stuff I'd wanted to talk about for most of my life and couldn't, not with Witnesses or in that world.

I found out there is a whole world of things that I'd been taught were bad and evil that were actually interesting and fun. I also found out that yes, the world has bad things in it, but that didn't mean I had to villainize EVERYTHING in it.

I found normalcy, whatever normal is, and my own personality again. I found out I'm sometimes rude, bawdy, ridiculous, arrogant and guess what It's okay. It's all right. I didnt have to be perfect for people to like me. I didn't have to be pious and repressed and a big NOTHING.

So, when I see people teasing and cursing and being vulgar here, I just LOVE it. They're just being human, probably for the first time. Humans are sometime a total pain in the ass, egotistical, vulgar and all that, and it's only by experiencing just a total JERK sometimes that we can start to grow up.

There's no one more obnoxious than a teenager, believe me, I know...I have three of them! In some ways, we're kind of like that...we're spreading our wings and finding our limits and who we are. We'll probably settle down after a while...well, most of the time. I've still got a lot of rebel in me.

But, for everyone who gets offended, I hope they realize we're not trying to offend anyone, not really. We're just enjoying being free of all that repression.

And, within the stated limits, which are totally reasonable, I'm glad we're allowed to cut loose here. God, if anyone needs it, the formerly brainwashed do.

28

EXPOSING JW'S AT THE 7-11 THIS MORNING

by judge rutherFRAUD in

jw
friends

i'm getting coffee at the 7-11 about 8:30 this morning , in the parking lot i see this guy i know and his wife talking to some jw's in the parking lot.

i go over and say hi joe and wife, i play stupid and ask do you go to church with these people.

they say no they are preaching jesus to us.

mindmelda

They don't give you a "Bible" study and I make sure everyone I get a chance to talk to about it knows that.

I should know, one of the last interactions I had with Witnesses was to ask for a Bible study...I wanted to give them one last chance. I was told by the elder's wife who came to talk to me about it was that we had to use WTS publications or she couldn't study with me.

I told her I don't mind if you use them for reference, but I know the basic Witness teachings...I've heard them for 36 years, in all their revised and various forms.

I said, fine, just to be fair, as I said, and she kept bringing articles to study that were about respecting the org and the WTS and the FDS and the GB and all the wonderful spiritual food and about regular meeting attendance and field service..yadda yadda yadda.

I would answer in my own words, often things not in the paragraphs, and I got scolded for "not sticking to the material". I'd get my bible out and read scriptures not in the paragraphs and ask questions about them that apparently pissed off the elderette. She'd get exasperated with me for that.

Finally, she told me it was a waste of time studying "the bible" with me because I wouldn't get with the program.

Basically, I resisted their brainwashing techniques, what they call "bible study" and boy, they don't like it one bit.

But, yeah, there's next to no bible in their bible study. I think one thing that really opened my eyes about that is that I actually started listening to people I'd talk to, not in FS because I didn't do that much, but just people in general and found out that some of them knew the Bible at least as well as JWs, if not better, and didn't share JW beliefs.

I started realizing...what they teach isn't in there, not most of it, anyway.

I think it's terribly sad...these people who think they've finally found "The truth" and that they're busting their ass to do this hard to do stuff that they think will get them God's favor and a paradise and its all just total and utter BULLSHIT.

So, I'm usually not too mean with JWs unless they start it. But, if I saw them trying to convert someone, I'd definitely butt in and ask them, as you did, to prove what they teach directly from the Bible, since that is their own claim. They really cannot do it. That still kind of amazes me when I think that for years I believed that they could!

Brainwashing...they're doing it right. :(

4

Cake Wrecks: Laughed 'til I Cried

by metatron in

jw
friends

there's a new book out showing professionally decorated cakes that involve huge mistakes.

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/2008/10/sorry-you-cant-have-any.html.

if you are asked, "what would you like written on your cake?

mindmelda

one of my favorite sites.

89

What is your race?

by asilentone in

jw
friends

i am white and i am not prejudiced at all.

.

mindmelda

I remember when we used to be Caucasians...my son when little once asked, "Does that mean you're from Caca?"

And I replied, "Why yes it does, son."

140

What's a really good movie you'd recommend that most people probably haven't seen?

by A.Fenderson in

what's a really good movie you'd recommend that most people probably haven't seen?.

my personal recommendation: synecdoche, new york.

it's one of those movies that words fail utterly to capture--which really is the hallmark of a good movie, i suppose.

mindmelda

One of my favorite movies is "Big Eden". It's a gay themed romance, so it might not be for you, but it's a adorable, touching and fun movie. I watched it with my kids...they loved it.

6

Anyone into martial arts?

by Gregor in

there are so many disciplines.

judo, tae qwan do, jujitsu.

i have never tried any but heard about a couple of new ones that sound practical for self defense.

mindmelda

Mexican Judo...Judon't know If I have a gun.LOL

Actually, my dad taught me judo and boxing before the JW nonsense. I'm glad he did...came in handy a few times. I went to a rough high school.

14

Another thing - Subject titles that are teases, and don't really tell me what's inside make me not want to open them.

by gubberningbody in

jw
friends

no more of this..... .

"who feels this way?".

.

mindmelda

Okay, so you don't like surprises...*crosses off surprise party list for gubberningbody*

12

Are you RANDY?

by St George of England in

jw
friends

why is it that the characters in the convention drama always have a kid called randy?

he is always the good kid in the illustration and the elders always address him with "hi randy" in cowboy film accent.. he in england randy has sexual connotations and means lustful or promiscuous.

are kids actually called randy in the us?.

mindmelda

LOL..it's a nickname for Randolph, but yeah, it's kind of an all American kid name.