Reopened Mind

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Posts by Reopened Mind

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  20

  broken hearted

  by recovering in

  1. social
  2. family

  9:05am may 12i just got this facebook message from my niece.

  i had always thought she was smarter than this.

  she is a college educated woman in her 50's .

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  Reopened Mind

  First of all, ditto what Blondie said. A person in a vulnerable situation has no defenses against what a cult can level against them.

  I attended pioneer school back in 1986. We spent a great deal of time practicing how to talk to different kinds of people. For example from our "secret" pioneer book, "Shining as Illuminators in the World", p. 54 under the heading Choosing Bible Topics for 'All Sorts of People', it says: What Bible subjects do you find appeal to: men, women, youths, older people, religious people, agnostics, atheists. Then there are numerous sample discussions for each topic.

  Added to this are tracts, brochures, magazines, and whole books devoted appealing to a person's particular vulnerability. One that stands out for me was the brochure, "When Someone You Love Dies". I always carried a copy in case I came across a person suffering the loss of a loved one. It very powerfully gave them the (false) hope of seeing their dead loved one back here on earth. It was difficult to resist.

  I am sorry for you recovering that your niece became another victim of the cult. I myself was recruited as a teenager and spent most of my adult life in the WT clutches.

  Steve Hassan says that everyone in a cult has an authentic personality and a cult personality. Try to reach your niece's authentic personality. Although I suspect as a newly baptized Witness she has buried it deep.

  Please accept my sympathies.

  Reopened Mind
• 
  216

  My Final Goodbye

  by Lady Lee in

  1. forum
  2. announcements

  i want to start by saying i will not participate in discussion here about my resignation as a moderator at jwn.. simon please consider this as my resignation from that position.. i have been posting on this board for almost 12 years.

  i know some of you a lot, others a little and some not very well at all.

  i have remained here for those of you who have needed support as you make the transition out of the wts, who needed someone to listen to your experiences of abuse at the hands of jehovah's witnesses, and to both laugh and cry with you as you progress out of the watchtower society.. we know that we have all experienced the cruelty of abuse of one kind or another.

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  Reopened Mind

  Lady Lee,

  I, along with a host of others, am sad to see you leave this forum. I hope you mean as a modeator and not as a contributor.

  Yes, I am among the silent majority who usually stays out of the debates and criticisms which take place on JWN. Back when my husband TotallyADD was an elder I would make comments to him about things I would observe in the congregation. He would remind me that there were two sides to every story. Of course that always meant to let the elders handle things. Nevertheless, I think that it is still good advice to sit back and listen to both sides before making any judgments. After learning "the truth about the truth" I have seen the dark side of the Watchtower; not to mention my own personal experiences and observations. Therefore I am happy to do my part to help anyone escape the clutches of that destructive cult.

  Reopened Mind
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  15

  Facebook 101, Help for Faders

  by Gojira_101 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i know i'm going to get bagged on for this, but i'm really just trying to help those who are fading if they have facebook or are on any social media outlets.. first off let's review.. .com stands for commercial.

  .net stands for network.

  ....etc.. so facebook.com is a commercial site, meaning they are trying to sell you something....or specialized advertising trying to get you to buy something because of your browsing history.

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  Reopened Mind

  Thank you for the information, gojira. For us older ones the internet can be daunting (I'm 60) and confusing.

  So the bottom line is: Whatever you don't want everyone to see, don't put on the internet especially facebook.

  Reopened Mind
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  17

  Blondie's Comments You Will Not Hear at the 03-31-2013 WT Study (ELDERS FELLOW WORKERS)

  by blondie in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  fellow workers.

  we are fellow workers.

  (a) what did paul mean when he wrote: by your faith .

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  Reopened Mind

  Blondie,

  I look forward to reading your comments on the WT study even though I don't often comment.

  For a long time I had requested a shepherding call as I had heard about how others had been visited. I had asked more than one elder for one. Then I decided to mention it to the CO when he visited the next time. He told me I didn't get a shepherding call because my husband was an elder and he took care of me!!

  It wasn't until I had been baptised for 37 years that I received my first shepherding call from a (different) CO. However by that time I had already learned "the truth about the truth".

  Well, maybe I could count the time 2 elders came to our house after our second son was born. They had heard I had had a tubal ligation and came to counsel us on mutilating my reproductive organs. We had researched the publications which articles all ended with the thought that it was ultimately our decision. The real problem was that I had talked about having my tubes tied. I didn't think too much about it since most of the sisters around my age had also had their tubes tied. O, and the other thing I was counseled on was not to hang my clothes out on the line on Sunday as that might offend the other religions in the area. I had 2 babies in cloth diapers at the time and no clothes dryer. (My husband was not an elder at this time.)

  Reopened Mind
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  54

  Our family wishes to extend our sympathies to Gregg [Greybeard from JWStruggle]...

  by Newly Enlightened in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  gregg, we are deeply sorry for your loss.

  you will be with us in our thoughts & prayers.

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  Reopened Mind

  Gregg,

  TotallyADD and I send our deepest sympathies.

  Reopened Mind
• 
  19

  Hello

  by apocryphal in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  [if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng /> </o:officedocumentsettings> </xml><!

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  [endif][if gte mso 10]> <mce:style><!

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  Reopened Mind

  Hello apocryphal,

  You are in a tough spot with all of your family in the cult. Have you read any of Steve Hassan's books, namely "Combatting Cult Mind Control" and Releasing the Bonds"? He has a third one out which I have not read but is also highly recommended by others here.

  My husband, TotallyADD, was a born-in like yourself. Fortunately for us I was not and had some nonJW (I hate the term "worldly") family with whom we were able to reconnect. The point is, do you have friends on the outside of the organization? This will be most helpful as your fade progresses. Take your time. There is no Armageddon.

  Our fade will we hope soon be coming to an end as we are awaiting our boys and their families exiting the cult.

  Good luck on your fade. Come here often to vent and ask for help. There is always someone who has undergone something similar to you.

  And CONGRATULATIONS for waking up at an age when you have your whole life ahead of you. We were in our fifties when we began learning TATT.

  Reopened Mind
• 
  49

  Mouthy Protesting Against The Watchower

  by Bangalore in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  .

  here is where i found this pic.

  bangalore.

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  Reopened Mind

  Mouthy,

  Your courage and actions are inspirational!!

  Reopened Mind
• 
  12

  One year anniversary on JWN & some updates (not so good news)

  by Kool Jo in

  1. jw
  2. friends

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  [endif][if gte mso 10]> <style> /* style definitions */ table.msonormaltable {mso-style-name:"table normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"times new roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"times new roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif].

  good day everyone....its been approximately one year since ive been on jwn, not as active as i want to, i guess i will be as time goes on.. its been an interesting year since been fully awaken about the lies behind the borg...thanks to this site, along with the many well put together blogs from cedars, marvin, jwfacts, randy & others, life has been much better for me.

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  Reopened Mind

  Kool Jo,

  Fading is hard work. TotallyADD and I have been doing it for the last 6 years. We are doing it for our children and grandchildren. We moved a 1000 miles away from our old congregation to ease the transition as we gradually explained to our grown and married boys what we were learning. We are hopeful that our fade is shortly coming to an end and begin living an authentic life.

  I feel for you if you are keeping in touch with your parents even though you will be in a different country. It may make it easier to feed them a little at a time, and much harder for them to check up on you.

  Best of luck.

  Reopened Mind
• 
  29

  Post cataract surgery Great News!

  by Lady Lee in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  my vision before the surgery was 20/60 in the eye that has had the surgery.

  i saw my eye dr today and it has moved up to 20/30.

  this is way beyond what i expected.

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  Reopened Mind

  Lady Lee,

  This is off the top of my head:

  I can see clearly now the rain is gone

  I can see all obstacles in my way

  Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind

  Gonna be bright bright bright sunshiny day!

  Glad that your're seeing things better literally as well as figuratively!!

  Reopened Mind
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  31

  What do they want from me?

  by MrFreeze in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  okay, so the jws (and my mom) would be so happy if i started going to meetings again.

  i've made it clear i don't believe what they say so why would they care if i went to meetings?

  do they want me to go meetings and be an open dissenter?

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  Reopened Mind

  MrFreeze,

  You can't unring a bell and you can't unlearn "the truth about the truth".

  Your mom should be pleased that you came to "an accurate knowledge of truth". (tongue in cheek)

  But that doesn't answer your question. What they want from you is your life, your devotion, your youthful strength, all your resources, your worship, your mind, and everything else that you think belongs to you. But you are far too intelligent for that nonsense. You have your freedom of mind and integrity intact. Wish TotallyADD and I could have said that at your age.

  Reopened Mind