Posts by exwhyzee

18

Getting Rid of Left-Over JW Superstitions

by GloomySunday in

i've been only out for about a year now, but still have some left-over superstitions, that i was hoping someone could help me get rid of.

firstly, i'd like to say that i don't think these are rational, but they keep bothering me, and i have some anxiety/paranoia problems that most likely are the cause.. i'm embarrassed by these silly things, and am young and have not been out long, so i'd assume this is to be an expected symptom.. what i usually keep doing is looking for patterns in everything, like if jws come to the door, i start interpreting it to mean that god sent them, or some such silliness.. or when watchtower or awake!

magazines come out, i keep applying the topics to what i've been thinking about, or what has happened recently.

exwhyzee

Folks who read the Horoscope (or even fortune cookies) can convince themselves that what they've just read, fits their lives perfectly. It's what keeps the writers of this stuff in business. When you add O.C.D to the mix, you've got a lifelong customer. JW literature works in much the same calculated way. They write books and magazine articles that feed into basic human fear of the unknown. They remind the reader (with unprovable evidence and graphic photos) of his own fears, they create anxiety in him and then offer soothing but unprovable solutions that quell the anxiety they have induced. Then they convince or guilt the reader into to repeating the addicting process on a weekly or daily basis. Boom..you're hooked and they've got another lifelong (unhappy, afraid) customer. They're all customers too and they were lured in, the same way.

You're not being "silly" at all. If you'd have been rasied a Mormon or Catholic, you'd likely be having Mormon or Catholic related superstitions rather than JW related ones. The only difference is, Catholics and Mormons have trained professionals on board to assist their members who deal with O.C.D and other non religious challenges. JW' s have unlettered and ordinary men who have no business advising or diciplining people who may be suffering from a complex medical issue rather than some spiritual, moral or character flaw as is always their first guess. Most mean well but often the only thing they have to offer is "read the Bible, go in service, attend more meetings" " Don't want to do that?? We love you but Get Lost ! "

It seems like the only way around this is to develop a strategy that counteracts the obsessive religious thoughts and identifies the unproductive coping mechanisims you may be employing to soothe the resulting anxiety the obsessive religous thoughts are causing. Perhaps this site will offer some assistance.

The way I look at it is, since these fears and superstitions are God related, if he really exists, he knows all too well what you are going through and is on your side. If he doen't exist, your God based or Bible based fears don't have to exist either.

24

Nightmares when active JW

by MissConfused in

i remember when i was active, i would constantly get nightmares regarding armageddon.. used to wake up so many times at night watch my window, pray hard and try to go to sleep.

now i wonder that this organization was really succcessful in making people scared to death about 'current system of things', but why would anyone do that?

why would anyone want to bring division in families, make hate speeches, scare people to death, etc?

exwhyzee

In the lead up to 1975, as we were "prepared" for tribulation, I had nightmares about my young children, fleeing from some imaginery enemy and having to carry the younger ones in our arms ... of being caught and seeing our kids bayonetted to death because we refused to reveal some important organisational secret ... starving and thirsty etc etc. It really was a terrible fear, nothing quite grabs your guts like danger to your children *** ...

So true FTS....I spent many night as a little boy tossing and turning wondering how I was going to resist giving up my faith to save my little sisters from being killed. After all, didn't they throw the 3 Hebrew boys into the firey furnace for not bowing down to Baal? I just knew "they" (whoever "they" was) were going to torture and kill my sisters or me if I didn't renounce Jehovah or the organization. My Dad was not a JW and from the platform I learned how he was not only going to be killed by Jehovah but before that, under Satans influence, he may even turn on his own family and deliver us up to the "authorities". My own wonderful father....how could that be ???

I wonder what it would have been like to have a childhood free of such fanatical brainwashing ? It's just sickening. I want my own "pound of flesh" taken out of the hides of the leaders of this orgaization.

24

Nightmares when active JW

by MissConfused in

i remember when i was active, i would constantly get nightmares regarding armageddon.. used to wake up so many times at night watch my window, pray hard and try to go to sleep.

now i wonder that this organization was really succcessful in making people scared to death about 'current system of things', but why would anyone do that?

why would anyone want to bring division in families, make hate speeches, scare people to death, etc?

exwhyzee

It's like they say "garbage in....garbage out"

It's only natural for your dreams to be affected by what you dwell on during the day. Attending Apocalypse Hunting Seminars 3 times a week since childhood was enough to leave me with severe unexplained anxiety for decades. It dissapeared within weeks of leaving the Organization.

Not A Coincidence !

20

What is the WT's definition of an Apostate...

by Bells in

jw
friends

i don't mean the 'unruly men who cook up wicked reasoning and season their brew with poisonous lies that deceive minds' definition.... i mean - who are they actually referring to when they are doing these awful talks at the conventions about the mentally diseased apostates etc.. specifically - is an 'apostate' someone who was actually baptised (baptized for you american's ) ?

or can someone who was simply raised in "the truth" but left and was never baptised be classified as this lying, deceiving, mentally diseased apostate also?

or am i considered to be an apostate - even though i wasn't raised in the cult, never went to a meeting etc.

exwhyzee

If you leave your Church or religion because you see hypocracy, wrongdoing or doctrinal errors, you are considered to be "honest hearted and a "seeker of truth" .

If you leave the Watchtower Society for the very same reasons, you are an Apostate and are the worst kind of unbeliever.

19

Has anyone else ever wondered this ?

by scary21 in

jw
friends

i know the jw's are wrong but if they were right, this is my question...... when the big a comes, there has to be the best person who dies.

the one who lost out on life by a fraction.

the very best one who still did not make it.

exwhyzee

Adolph Hitler killed 6million Jews.....eternal destruction.

A JW who doesn't go out in Service enough during the last days....eternal destruction.

2

Ideas to increase cognitive dissonance

by ILoveTTATT in

jw
friends

ok so from the help of various people, i now have thought of various ways to increase cognitive dissonance without showing "apostate reasoning"... usually it works by highlighting other beliefs (sorry people if someone here is of any of the faiths i will mention... i do not mean to insult, just to save my family and friends from the wt...) and portraying them as "bad" when we have had exactly the same beliefs at one point!!

(i will try the nathan-david approach... you are the man!!!).

vaccinations: "i find it soooo stupid that some religions reject vaccinations!!

exwhyzee

You could say " Don't you hate how everytime something good happens, Fundamentalist Christians claim it's due to the Lord having blessed them, even when there's no way to prove it is so? "

JW's roll their eyes and snicker to themselves when people from other religions talk about how much God has blessed them or their efforts to serve him. After all, everybody knows they are the only one's God blesses...even though there is no proof of this.

14

I am amused by my new Job offer

by recovering in

i have just been hired as the new clinical director for a large company.

i think the following email from them is hilarious.

they want me to basically define my duties by writing my own job description.

exwhyzee

I think posting the letter was recovering's way of letting us know he's 'doing very well thank you.'

Yea...the email wasn't that hard to figure out, especially for a Dr. but it was a way to let everyone know what his/her salary will be without coming across as bragging. Can't blame him though....sounds like he/she is "recovering" well.

8

WHAT IS GOING ON?!!

by MsGrowingGirl20 in

i feel as though i'm losing it.. firstly, my mom isn't baptized but has been around witnesses for a long time.

when i was in, she would have problems with the religion.

we were always at ends with eachother.

exwhyzee

I'd say your Mom is feeling guilty for your having left the truth because when you were trying, she wasn't very supportive . Maybe your DF'd friend was teetering between going back or leaving for good and was bouncing things off of you.

79

Role Reversal: Placing 1969 Awake with JW's Manning the New Portable Literature Displays

by snapdragon4 in

jw
friends

in recent weeks the jw’s here in the uk have been setting up their new portable watchtower literature displays in my local town square on a saturday morning.

as they hadn’t knocked on my door for at least five years, and consequently feeling somewhat neglected, i thought that i would pay them a visit instead.. .

the first thing i needed to do was arrange my literature.

exwhyzee

Well done. You lived out a fantasy of mine. I have printed copies of these type of articles on the bookshelf in our entry hall at the ready.

I'd also like to print a stack of these and place them on all the windshields of the cars at the KH parking lot on meeting night or mail them anonymously to every JW I know.

14

I am amused by my new Job offer

by recovering in

i have just been hired as the new clinical director for a large company.

i think the following email from them is hilarious.

they want me to basically define my duties by writing my own job description.

exwhyzee

"Write your own job description so I can work off it" = I was told to write it but that's too much work. it's easier if you do it since I don't know all that much about it . I'll just tweak it a little and make it look like I know what I'm doing.

Fill out the credit applicaton = You will have a card to use for work related expenses.