mentallyfree31

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Posts by mentallyfree31

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  48

  Influx Of Newbies

  by snowbird in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  so many lately!.

  come on in, stand up tall!.

  sylvia.

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  mentallyfree31

  Thanks for the welcome snowbird. I joined 3 months ago, after waking up about 5 months ago. But I only started posting about 3 weeks ago.

  I have been wondering if more people are leaving. Here's one theory - as the WT organization has grown over the years and produced more publishers it has more people to go out and recruit. So the more people that are out recruiting, the easier it is to make increases. But on the other hand, as more people leave and "wake up", there are more people to help their families and friends to leave. Just my opinion.

  In any event, I'm glad to be here. I've learned many things and have enjoyed being a part of things.

  -mentallyfree31-
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  27

  What are your summer plans??

  by awildflower in

  1. watchtower
  2. medical
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  mentallyfree31

  My plans are to awaken my wife from the WT nightmare!
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  290

  What hope is there then?

  by sayitsnotso in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  if jws don't have the truth; if there is no paradise earth; if there is no end of this system; if death is all there is, then what hope do we have to look forward too?.

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  mentallyfree31

  First, I'm just glad to be out of the WTS so that I can actually think about whether there is or is not a god. I'm still undecided on the matter, although I plan on doing a lot more reading and thinking before I come to a concrete decision.

  I do know this: I prayed to God for 25 years, and the more and harder I prayed, it drove me deeper into a destructive mind control cult. So I'm pretty sure that for those 25 years, nobody was listening to my prayers.

  Billions of people have lived on the earth, and I haven't seen anybody that has moved on to an afterlife and has come back to let me know that an afterlife exists.

  If God wrote a book for us, then surely he would have preserved the original text so that his message would be here for us today, instead of copies of copies copies.

  If God wanted us to draw close to him, then surely he would make sure that we knew the exact pronunciation of his name. According to my limited research - nobody knows that. (I think this statement is correct..please correct me if it's not..)

  These are things that I ponder. Sure, an afterlife would be awesome. I wish there was one myself. Especially if it was an afterlife that was enjoyable. But realistically, looking at the hard facts available - I'm not leaning toward believing in this right now.

  As mentioned, I plan to do much more reading on this subject in the future. And I have enjoyed this thread very much. It's very mentally stimulating to read oposing views on this matter.

  -mentallyfree31-
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  12

  Any Ex-JW's from Mississippi, Louisiana or Alabama?

  by mentallyfree31 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  just curious, is there anybody here from mississippi, louisiana or alabama on the forum?

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  -mentallyfree31-.

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  mentallyfree31

  Just trying to find out who close around has "woken up" from the WT nightmare.
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  12

  Any Ex-JW's from Mississippi, Louisiana or Alabama?

  by mentallyfree31 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  just curious, is there anybody here from mississippi, louisiana or alabama on the forum?

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  -mentallyfree31-.

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  mentallyfree31

  Any others?
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  16

  Outcast & Rejected

  by Drewmeister in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  just wanted to interduce myself an give an quick synopsis.. i was a happy an healthy(ish) young man back in march 08. i was cornnered by a (didn't know it @ the time) jw who talked to me alot about "the truth" and why the world is like it is.

  he is a window cleaner in town, hence i didn't know as he wasn't in his suit.

  everything he said made sense to me @ the time, but thinking back i wasn't @ my healthiest or strongest so he got me @ my weakest point.

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  mentallyfree31

  Welcome to the forum here. I'm am sorry to hear about your condition. I hope you find friendships and support here, as many others have.

  It seems that none of your family joined the WTS. That is surely a good thing. Many come here as JW's who have dozens of family members in, even all their immediate family. In order to leave, they really have to walk away from everything, and be shunned by everyone who loved them, and completely start over. Some on the forum have been shunned by parents and children for decades. It's very sad.

  Others have spent a lifetime in this organization. Ray Franz, as you will see, spent almost 60 years i think as a Witness. My family spent 25 years in it. You will find that people have wasted thier ENTIRE lives chasing the WT fairy tales. So I am happy to hear that you have woken up after only a brief time.

  Hang in there. Ray Franz also has a second book that is excellent as well. Best of luck to you!

  -mentallyfree31-
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  31

  Evidently . . .

  by Mad Sweeney in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  this has been a wt buzzword for a long time but has come up in several recent discussions here.

  so, i just had to look it up on the wt library cd-rom.. the word "evidently" appears 1,439 times in the insight books alone.

  that number is staggering considering that the two-volume set is supposed to be comprised of encyclopedic facts.

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  mentallyfree31

  Evidently, it was these words that fooled me for 25 years.

  LOL
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  31

  Crazy things Sisters put on the Head when they Pray...

  by Confucious in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i remember a sister that put a tissue over her head as a headcovering....

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  mentallyfree31

  I used to go on Bible Studies with sisters back when I pioneered. I always let them conduct their own studies, and they would have to wear head coverings. It was pretty funny watching them explain this to the householder. "yeah, because of the angels, i am gonna need to wear this scarf today, since this guy here is a baptized member of our church"..

  LOL
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  33

  I like the people in my Kingdom Hall!

  by lavozsa in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  this may sound like a funny title, but it is actually true.

  just to give a brief background on myself, i've been a jw for nearly 12 years now.

  i didn't grow up in a jw family, nor is anyone else in my immediate family a jw (except my wife and her family).

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  mentallyfree31

  When you have good JW friends, it can be very heartbreaking. But you have to realize the hard truth: When your friends find out that you do not believe this is God's organization and that you do not believe this stuff anymore, their friendship will flip off like a light switch. Especially when you eventually get DF'd or labeled apostate, these "friends" will never speak to you again. So the reality is that in order to retain these friendships, you would have to be silent and engage in a game of pretending to be a JW, pretending to believe what they believe. You will have to filter all your thoughts so that everything that comes out of your mouth sounds like a JW.

  For me, it was far more advantageous to pursue new friends who do not care what my religious beliefs are. With my new friends, I can chage religions once a year if I like, and they won't care at all. As JW's, we really lived in a bubble and thought that we can only be close friends with people that thought just like us. This is actually just a strong control mechanism that the WTS uses to keep us in the JW bubble. As long as everybody around us was smiling and grinning and saying that they were happy and that all this makes sense, it's very difficult to start thinking critically and realize that something is wrong.

  Best of luck to you lavozsa. And welcome to the board. Be sure to read these books if you haven't already:

  1 - Crisis of Conscience by Ray Franz

  2 - Combatting Cult Mind Control by Steve Hassan

  3 - Captives of a Concept by Don Cameryn

  It's pretty amazing to realize that people figured all this out DECADES before you or me ever studied and joined.

  -mentallyfree31-
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  22

  Hi all...I think it's time to introduce myself

  by Desilusionnee in

  1. jw
  2. friends

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  mentallyfree31

  Desi,

  Here are the generally agreed "must - read" books when a person is coming out:

  Crisis of Conscience - Ray Franz

  Combatting Cult Mind Control - Steve Hassan

  I also suggest Captives of a Concept by Don Cameryn, it's a short but powerful read that can be completed in one long sitting.

  Best of luck to you. Glad to hear more about your background. There are many here who can offer suggestions on fading and such, as they have already been through it.

  -mentallyfree31-