Posts by Reopened Mind

42

Can you help me encourage Reopened mind.

by TotallyADD in

jw
friends

as most of you know we got a very angry letter from our oldest son.

it hurt her very much.

i feel so bad for her because he attacked her for what i feel was very unfair.

Reopened Mind

My dear sweet TotallyADD, most of the venom in the letter was directed at him yet he opens this thread to encourage me!

I thank all of you for your kind well thought out replies. The counsel here is so much more balanced and useful here than we ever got in the WT mags, not to mention so much more loving and empathetic.

As TotallyADD said I did not get on the computer last night. What a pleasant way to start my day.

Our son is 36 years old. He has 2 children, 7 & 8 years old. We live in Pennsylvania and they live in a southern state. He quit going to meetings before we did when he saw problems with the religion. His wife does not attend either but that is because of her emotional condition. She holds strongly to the beliefs. They share a home with her father who I believe still goes to the meetings.

Oubliette: Yes, I am hurt by my son's letter. TotallyADD has taken the brunt of the visciousness. I guess growing up JW has helped him develop a thicker armor against personal attacks.

jgnat: I have that hope too.

LisaRose: I agree. I look at my parents and my husband's parents and realize that they did the best they could with what they had. Both sets did far better raising their families than than their parents. I hope someday our son will say the same about us. I have not had any instruction in meditation but when I get stressed I visualize the camping trips we took to north GA when the boys were young. That seems to help.

Will answer more later.

Reopened MInd

6

Facebook "friend" heard a rumor

by Reopened Mind in

jw
friends

i was surprised to get a message on facebook yesterday from a sister in a congregation i hadn't attended in 18 years.

she said she heard a rumor totallyadd and i no longer want to be jws.. funny thing is the last time i messaged her on facebook was january 2011. yes, i had let all correspondence drop with jws as we were well into our fade at the time.. but two and a half years and she wants to know if we want to be jws?

no how are you doing, miss you guys, or news of her family.

Reopened Mind

I was surprised to get a message on facebook yesterday from a sister in a congregation I hadn't attended in 18 years. She said she heard a rumor TotallyADD and I no longer want to be JWs.

Funny thing is the last time I messaged her on facebook was January 2011. Yes, I had let all correspondence drop with JWs as we were well into our fade at the time.

But two and a half years and she wants to know if we want to be JWs? No how are you doing, miss you guys, or news of her family. She just wants to know if she has to shun us.

I think I know how the rumor mill got cranked up there. My son told his wife we had left and she made a phone call or two.

CULT! CULT! CULT!

So glad I'm not a part of it any more.

Reopened Mind

53

Why elders' wives are such gossipers...

by Calebs Airplane in

i have a theory as to why elders' wives gossip so much.

i believe a big part of it has to do with the conversation running dry (between themselves and their elder husbands) after so many years of marriage.

since they don't get to spend too much "quality time" together (because of the elder husband's hamster wheel schedule), when they do have some intimate time alone, the elder's wives will invaribly attempt to engage their husbands in any kind of interchange.

Reopened Mind

I was an elder's wife. I was told by a sister that when I was I a car group the gossip stopped. I know it was because when I heard something I would tell my husband so the elders could handle it.

My husband was careful not to share what was going on in the congregation with me.

Please, Calebs Airplane, don't paint all elders wives as gossips. Yes, I know some are.

All of us apostates are not "mentally diseased", "drug addicts", or "drunkards".

Reopened Mind

31

Who/what is more responsible for you becoming a JW?

by minimus in

jw
friends

is it family, friends, idealism???

what????.

.

Reopened Mind

Like Julia I was converted as a teenager. Two girls in junior high began talking to me about evolution. Too bad I didn't have enough knowledge (self-confidence) to refute them. Also like Julia I was shy and socially awkward. They plied me with promises of living forever on a paradise earth with a large loving family. But, and this was a big BUT, Armageddon was due in a few years and the times were URGENT! (How long can times be urgent!!) That was back in the late sixties. I had also determined that there was no burning hell and that war was wrong so that gave them an opening of common ground.

I was loved bombed and I ate it up.

Reopened Mind

5

Facebook comments

by zound in

jw
friends

saw this daily text posted on facebook along with a buttload of comments from jws.

i would only recommend reading this on an empty stomach.. the one listening to counsel is wise.prov.

they help us evaluate ourselves too, as their is a tendency to think we are okay in many aspects.. counsel is always needed because of some personality trait so to reprove and put us in the right path.when counsel is needed, it is good for the elders to provide it at the earliest opportunity and when they do,let us listen to jehovah through them so that we can be wise...remember ..listen, obey and be blessed!

Reopened Mind

These comments have MIND CONTROL CULT written all over them; especially the ones that call for unquestioning obedience.

Reopened Mind

32

Hello

by ctrwtf in

jw
friends

i thought it was time for a formal introduction.

i've lurked here for literally years, sometimes posting sometimes not.

but i've never told my story and now seems as good a time as any.

Reopened Mind

ctrwtf,

Thanks for sharing your story. It takes a great deal of courage to "come out of the lurking closet". We are more than happy to become your extended family.

My husband was a second generation born-in, elder, PO, temp bethelite. I converted in my teens. Unfortunately our children were grown and married with children of their own before we began to learn TTAT. O well, what's past is past. We look ahead to making new friends, you know those who don't put any conditions on accepting you.

When my husband temped at Bethel he came back puzzled why there were so many buildings standing empty while they were still spending money to maintain them. Why weren't they being used if the message was so urgent? Ha ha! We all know the answer to that. There is no Armageddon, hence no urgency, just old men trying to hang on to their publishing company.

My husband too questioned the flood story. So I volunteered to research for him. What I found convinced him that not only was the religion wrong but the Bible as well.

Keep posting and keep fading. And good luck!

Reopened Mind

77

What does your screen name/avatar mean and what does it stand for

by BU2B in

jw
friends

and why did you choose it?

if you have a avatar, what is it and why did you pick it?.

ok ill start.

Reopened Mind

I thought of myself as open minded when I was a teenager. Unfortunately I opened my mind up too much and let in this cult that controlled my mind for the next 38 years. As I learned "the truth about the truth", I reopened my mind to explore all the wonderful possibilities this world has to offer and reopened my mind to really listening to people and learning from them.

Reopened Mind

2

When Vulnerable...

by LouBelle in

jw
friends

when you are feeling down, vulnerable and your emotions a mess, many people will reach out to you.

in my experience most mean what they say and are genuine in their desire to see you feel/get better (personaly experience from here xx).. then you get those that prey on the vulnerable.

they see an opportunity to perhaps get you entangled emotionally and being in that delicate state you may allow it to happen....with out necessarily realising what is going on.. always tread carefully when you are in this state of mind.

Reopened Mind

Those were the "sighing & crying" ones we were looking for when we were JWs.

Reopened Mind

20

broken hearted

by recovering in

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 .

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

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.

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