wt inc./j.w.
are similar to amway,one promosies paradise the other financial freedom.. the top get all the benefits.the r&f do all the work.. amway has rallies/seminars/meeting/etc.. wt inc. has r.c.
(was d.c.)/c.a./tms/etc.. recruitment: amway meet for coffee for a financial discussion only to invite you to a hotel meeting but don't say what it is about.when you get there you say wtf it is an amway meeting.. wt inc/j.w.
Neverendingjourney -
I didn't take what you said as condescending all. You were just stating fact that I was unaware of. I suppose I was just humbled by the notion that it's very possible none of my observations are all that original.
Oh well, hopefully the way I express them will be.
Brock Talon
wt inc./j.w.
are similar to amway,one promosies paradise the other financial freedom.. the top get all the benefits.the r&f do all the work.. amway has rallies/seminars/meeting/etc.. wt inc. has r.c.
(was d.c.)/c.a./tms/etc.. recruitment: amway meet for coffee for a financial discussion only to invite you to a hotel meeting but don't say what it is about.when you get there you say wtf it is an amway meeting.. wt inc/j.w.
Aunt Fancy and AnnOMaly - I sure appreciate your support of my book "Journey to God's House". People like you have made my writing experience fulfilling.
NeverendingJourney - I am realizing now that recognizing a parallel between MLM and the Watch Tower Society is not all that new... or brilliant. I have mixed feelings about that now because on the one hand I now know that people will mostly likely agree with my position on it when my book finally comes out. But on the other hand that means many people like you will say to yourself "Duh. It's so obvious." Oh well. I'm going to write about it anyway because it was part of my life experience. I'm a bit embarrassed to say now that I thought I was being very clever to include this as a chapter in my book.
Maybe in the end it really just goes to show how observant and clever so many people on this board are, and that I should also get on it and read more often.
Brock Talon
wt inc./j.w.
are similar to amway,one promosies paradise the other financial freedom.. the top get all the benefits.the r&f do all the work.. amway has rallies/seminars/meeting/etc.. wt inc. has r.c.
(was d.c.)/c.a./tms/etc.. recruitment: amway meet for coffee for a financial discussion only to invite you to a hotel meeting but don't say what it is about.when you get there you say wtf it is an amway meeting.. wt inc/j.w.
bobld -
I am writing a new book on my life before and after my Bethel experiences as a follow up to "Journey to God's House". One of the chapters in the book is entitled "A network marketing malaise". In it I make exactly the same parallels as you have just done in this post about network marketing companies. I felt compelled to tell you this because when I publish my book later you might feel I got this idea from you post. I assure you, I wrote this chapter a number of months ago. I guess great minds think alike?
I'd like to share the opening for this chapter here so you can get an idea of what it contains:
---------------------------
A network marketing malaise
When I returned from Bethel, I needed money badly and was desperate for a job. While I did find work, I wanted to do better than just get by. I wanted to "get ahead". So, one of the things I did was begin my college classes again. Another thing I did was get into network marketing, or what some would call multi-level marketing.
I don't want anyone to think that I have something against network marketing companies. I suppose there are legitimate ones at one end of the spectrum, with pyramid schemes at the other end. I suppose that some of these companies actually make money for the rank and file who work with them. I suppose some of these companies might actually be good.
I suppose.
What I do want you to know is that my personal experience with the large, long established and well known network marketing company I was associated with was a complete bust. I never made one thin dime of profit after subtracting my expenses. In fact, I lost money.
Maybe that was my fault. Maybe I wasn't cut out for that kind of business. Maybe I didn't try hard enough.
Maybe.
Or maybe it just felt too familiar to my religion and that made me feel uncomfortable. Maybe I experienced so much malaise from this familiarity that it was difficult to overcome mentally.
Maybe I should explain...
The recruitment = field service
As I was washing my hands in the restroom at my place of employment one day, a friendly chap with a British accent struck up a conversation with me. He began telling me about financial freedom by working for myself rather than slaving away for some uncaring employer who only made money from my sweat. Intrigued, I accepted his offer of a free lunch to hear more.
During lunch, he showed me a simple plan to become fabulously wealthy. He claimed that he had only been in his own business for a few months and was well onto the road to financial freedom. He mentioned that the field we both worked in made peanuts compared to what his new business was raking in. Since he was doing what I did longer than I had been, and since he made more than me, I was impressed that his other business was that lucrative. He bluntly claimed that if I were to "join his team", he could make me as successful as he was, and in short order too.
The recruitment technique that he used on me that day was not all that different from the field ministry approaches used by Jehovah's Witnesses. They are taught to strike up conversations anywhere and everywhere about the Kingdom of God. This is called "incidental witnessing". Rather than offer financial freedom and wealth, Jehovah's Witnesses offer a new system of things in a fabulous earthly paradise where everyone will stay young forever. That paradise would be coming very soon too, just about as quickly as all that money was to be hitting my bank account for starting my own network marketing business.
...
--------------------------
The chapter goes on from there making parallels to all the network marketing techniques and approaches. It was eerie for me when I joined that company because it felt a whole lot like being a Jehovah's Witness, only they promised me financial paradise rather than a literal one.
I hope to fininsh my book in the next month or so.
Brock Talon
please don't take this the wrong way if your battling weight problems, that's not what this thread is meant to talk about.
i am asking this question because jehovah's witnesses claim they have "the best way of life", "god's blessing", "the truth" and are trying to change the habits of healthy people by turning them in to their own makings.
i watched people who were great athletes turn all their muscle in to fat because we would get a elder or circuit overseer make remarks they were spending too much time "working out" and "bodily training is beneficial for little".
This is a very interesting thread. I love the responses to it so far because they are so spot on.
I used to get grief all the time as a young man for "being too obsessed over my body" just because I used to work out. I made no bones about the fact that I wanted to look better, but I also had my health in mind too. Besides, I had an abusive father that I felt I had to protect myself from. So, for many reasons, I worked out daily as a teenager and my body just responded to it.
As a result, my over weight elders would sometimes chide me about it. My potbellied dad snickered at me while I worked out in our garage. My chubby round mother accused me of taking steroids once I got big.
My now ex-mother-in-law actually told me once that my working out was a waste of time because the new system of things would give everyone nice healthy bodies anyway, so we shouldn't waste our time doing it now. This from a bony woman who never was without a glass of wine in her hand (drinking her meals rather than eating them) but whose husband looked like Jabba the Hutt with gout, who had obviously eaten all the food she left on the table and then some.
All of it was JW controlling bullshit and I used to push back on it, big time.
When I finally went to Bethel to get away from all this madness, I found it was even worse there. This is my story about how that worked out for me at "God's House": If it walks like a duck, then you're a brief wearing fairy
Brock Talon
in the 80's and 90's (maybe even earlier) i remember hearing lots of witnesses talk about "demon attacks".
whether it was someone studying the bible who then started having strange things happen in their house to people bringing stuff home from yard sales and getting personal attacks and horrible dreams resulting in them dystroying stuff they brought home or getting rid of it.. .
i also remember hearing a sister say she had to pray in a home with a study because the study started to get attacked.
They are still happening but the JWs are too afraid to talk about it!
when i read about bethel experiences my mind go to the show locked up raw!.
why would someone subject themselves to this without commeting a crime.. the wife and i went to see bethel in broklyn a few years ago and it was unlike anything i expected.
very cold.. went the bosert hotel and was talking to a brother there and asked how long he had been there, he said 25 years...i asked how old he was.
Like Barbara, I didn't find Bethel to always be a bad place while I was there in the 1980s. I actually have some fond memories of it. Of course, I have some bad memories too.
Since I see that some of you are relatively new to this board, you may not have read my previously posted Bethel Experiences. So, here's an example of a story that I look back fondly on. It's a story about governing body members I knew there:
A Bethel Memory #7 - My GB can lick your GB
--
Here's a different story of the opposite kind, one that I don't look back fondly on at all. It's about abuse of power that can go on at Bethel:
A Bethel Memory #8 - If it walks like a duck... then you're a brief wearing fairy
not much but the zombies usually where better clothes.
zombies use more of thier brain.. those were the ones i could think anything else?.
The worst thing imaginable: THE JEHOVAH'S WITNESS ZOMBIE!
ok.. you 70 plus bethelite members.... this is your chance to share stories!
inquiring minds want to know !no full names please..follow t.o.s.
to avoid borg libel lawsuits).. i will start the ball rolling with week one.
I wrote about many Bethel experiences already in JWN, but maybe the most disturbing for me was when I was brand new.
It's recorded here: A Bethel Memory #3 - Hey, let's welcome the new guy by maiming him!
Brock Talon
i was told by jw's that angels came down to earth before the flood, and had children with women.. i have a question about this and would like the sort of answer a jw would give so that i can be ready for them when they come to my door.. if one third of god's angelic staff were banished to earth, are they doing this now?.
if not, what is stopping them?.
if so, where are all these half angel children?.
Caroline77,
There was a book in the Bethel library that I read when I was there many years ago that is called "Angels and Women". It is about this very subject.
I talk about my experience reading that book at Bethel at this link: Angels and Women - Kind of like a Playboy
Brock Talon
forgive me for indulging in a goodbye but it would feel wrong not to,.
i hope the discussions and atmosphere here do not change for it is a bubbling brew of doubt, bravery and sincere hunger for answers.
these are healthy ingrediants for humans and especially for a jehovah's witness.. this forum offers not just the ability to ask without consequence, but it also offers the means to be real.
Congratulations Doctor Snare! You are a model to be followed young man. So very happy for you.
Brock Talon
