Welcome to the forum Carol
Glad you found us here, I hope this site helps you as it helped me.
3Mozzies [From Melbourne]
3Mozzies
JoinedPosts by 3Mozzies
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12
New Here - originally from Tassie now in QLD
by RADHESYAM inwell like exdubs my adult life has been a horried rollercoaster of ups and downs.
whilst attending a marriage counselling sesiion for the first time last week, the counsellor told me that is appears strongly that i have ptds and linked it back to my childhood as a dub.
i started doing some research and memories came flooding back.
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VIDEO. Violent bloody protest at the Memorial in Burgas, Bulgaria. 2011
by 3Mozzies inyou will need to be signed in to youtube to see it, or go to the bulgarian website (link below).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mupvrlg-i8g&.
beat the pastors of jehovah's witnesses and wrecked their prayer house.. story from a bulgarian website - google translated.. .
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3Mozzies
It looks like the mob wasn't even arrested!
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VIDEO. Violent bloody protest at the Memorial in Burgas, Bulgaria. 2011
by 3Mozzies inyou will need to be signed in to youtube to see it, or go to the bulgarian website (link below).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mupvrlg-i8g&.
beat the pastors of jehovah's witnesses and wrecked their prayer house.. story from a bulgarian website - google translated.. .
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3Mozzies
You will need to be signed in to youtube to see it, or go to the Bulgarian Website (link below)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mupvRlG-i8g&
Beat the pastors of Jehovah's Witnesses and wrecked their prayer house.
Story from a Bulgarian Website - Google Translated.
With fists and stones were smeared faces of two of the preachers of Jehovah's Witnesses Author: Dobromir Doskacharov
Opponents of the sect stormed their church in Burgas distr Slaveykov with stones, a disfigured and severely wounded in the headToday at 19 hours began protesting sect Jehovah's Witnesses in Burgas, who three days before this gathering supporters on Facebook. Organizers are local voevodes VMRO, led by their leader George Drakaliev. The protest had to be held in complex Slaveykov before the Hall of the kingdom of Jehovah's Witnesses, but grew into a mass melee.
Early protesters penetrated the high walls in the courtyard of the house of prayer and began to swear assembled the door people in suits. These were pastors. Prayer was begun 30 minutes earlier and was dedicated to their most important ritual - the crucifixion of Jesus.With shouts of "freaks!" and "Die!" several people dressed in black with hoods, attacked with fists first two preachers who stand at the door. Immediately afterwards, about two dozen protesters joined in a mass battle, which was tossing stones piratki and irons. The door of the building was broken and thrown away, and several piratki flew far into the hall for prayers, which were clustered posledvatelite of Jehovah.
Hell for sekatata lasted about 15 minutes, when teams arrived MI - Burgas. Under police escort had spent two seriously injured yehovisti - with blurred people were evacuated by ambulance.
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How Many JWs Have You known Who Have Commited Suicide?
by Was New Boy injames olsen and richaed wheellock both bethelites.. rich templet.
rich and james out of guilt, richard out of depression.. james and rich were both under 30 years old.. after richard wheelock (a bethel heavy) killed himself the society changed it's stand on whether suicides could be resurrectioned or not..
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3Mozzies
I know of one.
He was in his 40's and had a wife & two children in their teens.
He was always feeling persecuted at work for his JW beliefs. He would tell me that he couldn't stand the ridicule from his work mates. I was in my teens and had no idea how to help a 40+ year old with such things... This went on for years, then one day we all find out he jumped in front of a train to end it all.
This thread is quite sad but this subject needs to be spoken about.
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Got the personal Memorial invite last night.
by wobble inwe were sitting on the patio out the back of the house having acouple of drinks before we went out for a meal, i can't eat on an empty stomach, have to have a drink first !.
the doorbell rang, i answered it, and it was a "sister" i have known all my 61 years of life, with a mem.
invite in her hand, i told her to keep it, we already had one.
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3Mozzies
I was wondering if we were going to get an invite. Well today our dreams came true. We were visited by an elder from our KH. I didn't answer the door but I could see who it was through the window without him seeing me. Well he stood there for a while then walked away, slipping the invite in our letterbox as he walked to his car.
Wow, a special invite to pass wine & crackers around a room for an hour...what a special night that would be.
This will be the first memorial my wife & I are missing since we left, it's almost been a year out, feels great!
3M
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The first thing I did when I left the WT....
by sherry123 inwas sing the national anthem out loud......alone......in my house.
what did you do?.
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3Mozzies
I grew a beard
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April 15 Friday Fun Post
by OnTheWayOut init's tax weekend in the u.s.. for some goofy reason, income taxes are due monday instead of today.. for many, it's also the start of spring break.
others have already had theirs.. we need a friday fun post.
post any pics or vids or thoughts or jokes just for fun:.
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3Mozzies
3Mozzies
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Can someone PLEASE scan the Watchtower dated 7-15-11 and PM me. Im going public. People need to be warned about this CULT. Im done sitting on the sidelines watching
by foolsparadise inplease send me the magazine in its entirety so it looks authentic and credible.
i will be showing this article to all media types and news authorities.
i have lost my family to this destructive cult in the past year.
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3Mozzies
Also please PM me a scanned copy of the JULY Awake 2009 Magazine with the article " The Bibles Viewpoint" subheading " Is it Wrong to Change Your Religion."
I scanned it in a higher resolution so you can print it clearly. (images are larger than what you see here, just right click on them and click save)
3Mozzies
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What Is A Cult? Recognizing And Avoiding Unhealthy Groups
by 3Mozzies injayanti tamm author, 'cartwheels in a sari: a memoir of growing up cult'.
what is a cult?
recognizing and avoiding unhealthy groups.
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3Mozzies
Jayanti Tamm
Author, 'Cartwheels in a Sari: A Memoir of Growing Up Cult'What Is A Cult? Recognizing And Avoiding Unhealthy Groups
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jayanti-tamm/the-c-word_2_b_848340.html
Who in our over-stimulated, media-saturated, hyper-connected world would ever go and knowingly join a cult? The answer is no one.
No one wakes up one morning and decides to join a cult. Even if someone did, good luck trying to look up the address for the nearest local cult, for there isn't a single group that would ever admit to or advertise as being a cult. And why would they? The word 'cult' is explosive, loaded with connotations of brainwashing, lunatics, and mass suicide -- not exactly an ideal marketing strategy. For the most part, cults are keenly and obsessively aware of their public persona and consciously labor to maintain a positive image.
Scrolling through their websites, their mission statements are warmly fuzzy and vague; they promise redemption, renewal, rejuvenation, and reinvention. They offer answers, solutions, and happiness. It's all there, yours for the taking. What isn't included is the reality beneath the surface, the leader's demands for obedience from its members, the psychological pressure, the ability to subordinate all activities to the leader's will.
But most people don't find and join cults through Internet searches. Most people stumble upon them accidentally. A flyer in the laundromat for a free meditation class. A listing in the newspaper for a community service project. A poster at the library for a musical performance. Recruitment is purposefully subtle; the pull is gentle, gradual. Events are welcoming; attention is lavished on the visitor with the intention to create an environment that feels inclusive, nonthreatening, and safe. The visitor is warmly encouraged to return, to step in closer. It is not until later, often much later, that one may look around and, with great surprise, discover the strange terrain upon which one now stands.
Cults, whether they are offshoots of Eastern or Western traditional religions, are surprisingly similar in their methods and means. The tactics and techniques used to recruit, maintain, and disown noncompliant members seem pulled from a universal handbook of do's and don'ts. With all of their rules and restrictions, laws and codes, ultimately cults are about grasping and preserving absolute and unconditional control.
Cults are fueled by and thrive on control. The willingness to surrender control comes from excessive devotion to the leader and the leader's vision. The leader's personal agenda is presented as a universal elixir, one that will eradicate both personal and global moral, ethical, and spiritual maladies. The follower's faith becomes both the provider and the enabler.
Faith in the mission, faith in the leader is an agent used to unify a disparate collection of strong individuals from different ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds. The loss of the individual is the gain of the group. Individual achievements are discouraged, downplayed and finally eradicated while the group's achievements are encouraged, celebrated and memorialized.
To maintain the unity and cohesion of the cult, there is a clear separation between those 'inside' and 'outside.' Members are holy, special, chosen; outsiders are unholy, ignorant, toxic. Contact with the outside world -- often including family -- is discouraged, and family is redefined as the group itself. In this new family, subjugation and subservience is expected and obedience and control is demanded. From one's sexuality to one's personal hygiene, the leader possesses unquestioned, absolute authority over its members' lives. For a cult leader, it is imperative to seem infallible, to possess the answers, the solutions, the only route to salvation. The leader is fierce in singular righteousness, in the design to hail oneself absolute. A narcissist with insatiable needs for power, control, and, very often fame, the leader seeks affirmation of supreme authority through alignment with public figures and celebrities, achieving large numbers of recruits, and amassing private fiefdoms.
Through the need to please the leader, to ascend the ranks, to work to fulfill the leader's vision, cults dictate followers' actions and thoughts. Obedient members receive exalted status and conformity is enforced through notions of guilt, shame, and failure by both the leader and other members. A system of reporting on members for transgressions creates both an internal police force and opportunities for promotion and rewards for turning in brother and sister members. Those who violate the rules are punished and eventually, to maintain the coherent group unity, expelled. After time, the group assumes all roles -- family, friends, church, home, work, community, and departing, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, after years or even decades, without having a concrete safety net is challenging, and sometimes utterly impossible. The world on the other side appears frightening and overwhelming.
Just who is so easily swept up in the group-think and loss of individuality that are hallmarks of cults? A misconception is that there is a certain 'type' -- usually imbalanced, weak -- that not only finds themselves caught inside a cult but that isn't able to extract themselves from it. The truth is, there isn't one typical profile, 'type.' People with advanced degrees and people without any formal education are both equally likely to find themselves swaddled in orange robes or holed up in a compound. The urge to be a part of something is elemental, raw, and natural. To have a defined goal, a purpose, offers meaning. Most people strive for acceptance within social groups and long for affirmation from others. Be it in an office or country club, adjustments are made to conform, to gain approval and to advance.
In cults, extremism is the norm. When hyper devotion is expected behavior, for acceptance new recruits tend to rapidly thrust themselves into the prescribed lifestyle much to the chagrin of their family and friends on the 'outside.' There is no blame, no fault for having the audacity to plunge into belief, into faith so deeply, so forcefully that critical and analytical red flags, even if they once appeared, are snapped off. Belief and faith are such intoxicants that logical reason and facts become blurry and nonsensical.
While the boundary between cults and religion often feels confusing -- the Oxford English Dictionary's definitions differ only slightly with cults being "small" in size and possessing "beliefs or practices regarded by others as strange or sinister." Deciding what is strange or sinister certainly depends on the beholder. When accusations of being in a cult appear, members quickly and vehemently deny they are in a cult -- they are part of a 'spiritual path,' a 'special church,' a 'progressive movement' -- other groups are cults, but not theirs. No way.
Perhaps it is more useful to discern what a religious movement is or what a cult is by comparing its impact upon members' lives: does it compliment or control? At their best, healthy religions and organizations compliment rich, full lives by offering balance, community, comfort. At their worst, they lapse into vehicles demanding control. Cults limit lives into narrow, claustrophobic existences whose singular purpose is the cult itself.
Cult leaders, experts in psychological manipulation, prey on both the follower's ability to believe and need to belong. But this type of behavior is hardly limited to cults. After all, the aptitude and capacity to exploit human beings is universal, and, with the right ambitious and charismatic leader, any group easily could morph into a cult. What prevents that from occurring is that most established religions and groups have accountability mechanisms that restrain that from happening; cults, however, are purposefully designed so that the only restraints are the ones placed upon the people who, without even realizing it, have just done what they never thought they would do -- join a cult.
Is it a Cult? The Top Ten Signs the 'Group' You've Joined is Not what It Seems
- The leader and group are always correct and anything the leader does can be justified.
- Questions, suggestions, or critical inquiry are forbidden.
- Members incessantly scramble with cramped schedules and activities full of largely meaningless work based on the leader's agenda
- Followers are meant to believe that they are never good enough.
- Required dependency upon the leader and group for even the most basic problem-solving.
- Reporting on members for disobedient actions or thoughts is mandated and rewarded.
- Monetary, sexual, or servile labor is expected to gain promotion.
- The 'outside' world -- often including family and friends -- is presented as rife with impending catastrophe, evil, and temptations.
- Recruitment of new members is designed to be purposefully upbeat and vague about the actual operations of the leader and group.
- Former members are shunned and perceived as hostile.
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Dumbing down of WT literature can be measured mathematically.
by hamsterbait inevery magazine on the news stand is very carefully aimed at a target market.. .
it has long been known that how information is presented makes a big difference to who will read it.
you will agree that the ny times or scientific american are more erudite than the national enquirer or the toronto star.. .
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3Mozzies
I wonder what would be the score of the new simplified WT magazine???
Well it sure is closer to Zero than ever before . . .
3Mozzies
