i wrote this to randy walters last year and would like your views on it.. .
dear randall.
i have a lot to say but won't bore with the details, a brief introduction would be appropriate.
wake up choking night after night? Have you consulted a PHYSICIAN? Why assume from the gate that it's DEEMINZ?
See this is what I mean about our preconceptions and religious indoctrination coloring our perception of events.
BYW this IS a classic description of night terrors. My advice, see a doctor ASAP and rule out physical symptoms before calling the exorcist.
has anyone on this board ever experienced contact with demons?.
i have heard demons talked about for years, however i have never known anyone that has had any real experiences with them, i have only heard storys.. .
(some quotes).
I recommend the film 'Phenomenon' for those of you struggling with the seemingly unexplainable. It details how a normal guy deals with extraordinary experiences, and it might make you think outside your accustomed box regarding the 'unexplainable'.
There could be literally a thousand explanations for these phenomena. The tendency to see evil in the experiences is IMO a conditioned response. Whit Streiber talks about the perception of unexplainable occurrences in one of his books. He shared an 'abduction' experience with a child. He was terrified and viewed what was happening as a hideous thing. The child, OTOH, was quite relaxed and open to what was happening, and viewed the 'abductors' as angels, not creepy aliens. Your perspective of an experience colors it. Your preconceptions color your experience.
Personally, I think there are energies we haven't yet measured, and they affect us in ways we haven't yet begun to study. I don't reject any such 'supernatural' experience out of hand, but I refuse to label them with the old prejudicial fear-filled labels I was taught as a Churchian. JWs taught us that the world is a 'demon-filled void.' I refuse to accept that idiotic notion. Ignorance leads us to irrational fear of the unknown. It also leads us to defend our prejudices and accompanying fears, especially when they have a religious basis.
I believe the fear of the unexplained is the reason humans invented religion in the first place.
one day, an expert in time management was speaking to a group of business students and, to drive home a point, used a illustration those students will never forget.. as he stood in front of the group of high-powered overachievers he said,"okay,.
time for a quiz.
" and he pulled out a one-gallon, wide-mouth mason jar and set it on the table in fornt of him.. he also produced about a dozen fist-sized rocks and carefully placed them, one at a time, into the jar.
It's stupid to try to justify toting a Mason jar full of metaphysical rocks around. I dropped all that extraneous God crap after I learned to think for myself. No jar, no rocks, no dilemma. No god necessary. Just life, unadulterated with imaginary skydaddies and untrammeled by the orgiastic need for some 'spiritual' experience or 'guidance'.
Herd animals need to be led. The concepts of sin and salvation are potent carrot/stick devices, but I refuse to get in that harness and I totally repudiate the veracity of the whole religion grinding mechanism. If you need to be led, fine, go find the salvation package that comforts you, and work the program. Probably you wouldn't be able to survive on your own anyway. Herd animals need their pecking order to feel secure. Just don't tell me I need to join your herd.
It's also not my business to find you a replacement crutch just because you are too scared to think for yourself without the guidance of some hierarchical dogma. Most JWs ask 'what replacement are you offering?' and that is a stupid question. THe whole point is, you're supposed to follow the path ON YOUR OWN. It's not our place to give you a roadmap and mollycoddle you along the safest path. That's Christer interfering authoritarian thinking, and it's one of the great EVILS of our world.
at this particular district assembly, the governing body of jehovah's witnesses dresses down the faithful as well as themselves.. .
"cults suck"
Uh... I think Champs is new here kidz...:D
i went to see the jw guy's little gorefest 'toon.
i wrote him a nice fan mail but he never answered me!
gee i hope i didn't offend... any more than he offended me.... anyone else try mailing this guy?
I went to see the JW guy's little gorefest 'toon. I wrote him a nice fan mail but he never answered me! Gee I hope I didn't offend... any more than he offended me...
anyone else try mailing this guy? Any responses at all?
i've made this point before but it bears repeating.. the watchtower, with its extreme standards, injures.
families and hurts kids.. parents have a responsibility to teach and safeguard.
their kids.
what a wise person you've become, Metatron! Your family is fortunate to have you.
My relationship with my two oldest sons has been permanently scarred by our cult life. The middle child especially has a hard time finding his place in the real world. (my grown sons are ADHD, and although of high intelligence, they are socially and emotionally still adolescents.) He has problems accepting that my parenting of his 9-yr-old brother is radically different from the cult methods I used on him. At one time I had to get really hardnosed about the older boys trying to discipline Little Dark. Ike thinks I should be spanking and whipping Little to get his attention. Ike thought HE was going to whack some respect into his brother, until I intervened! We've had several discussion, a few unfortunately at the top of our lungs, about the differences in their childhoods. Ike, quintessential middle child, is having a hard time dealing with it. He seems to feel that this proves I love Little more than I did him. Nothing I can do about this, but it's frustrating to have the cult getting between my kids in this peculiar fashion.
Both grown sons also have no ambition, no goals, no future plans at all. I don't know how much of this is brain damage and how much is residual cult effects. My consolation is that my littlest boy, never exposed to the cult, is a good student, good citizen, and mostly happy kid, with plans already for his education and future. Is this proof that unconditional love and no spanking is a better way of parenting? Can't say that for sure, all I can say is it's worked better for us.
I recall a similar discussion about JW kids on a mail list a few years ago. Someone likened JW kids to tightly-coiled springs... once they let go... SPROING!!! It may take some pretty big bounces for that spring to relax and settle into its final shape. That analogy sure seemed to fit.
anyone know if any famous apostates lurk or post on this site.
we all know of randy http://www.freeminds.org.
is there anymore else?
'everybody is a star'----Sly Stone
'you're just another onionhead'---Todd Rundgren
'I am everyday people'---Sly Stone
There's a lot of this going around among us famoso types isn't there?
As always,
Mommie Dark
(iconoclast, cult watcher, and still sickeningly humble while being more famous than she oughta be)
for the majority of humans, certain events are surrounded by tradition and ritual.
marriage, the birth of children, entrance into adulthood, and death are all life-events which will be marked by most with a form of religious ceremony.
for the few who have left off affiliation with a religious organization, these events are marked differently - more by tradition than by mystic ritual.
wasasis,
(And wait a cotton-pickin minnit because you are STIll a sis only now you are a genuine free sis...
but I digress...)
over the years YK has proved he is incapable of thinking or speaking reasonably about anything. This topic is particularly apt to set his antennae twitiching; he is morbidly afraid of his own death, to the point of extreme denial, and urgently craves yours and mine. This potent combination of bloodlust and fear, combined with his deep need to be the center of attention at all costs, leads him to act like a horse's ass most of the time.
You can safely ignore him. He occasionally posts windy suggestions that this-or-that world event or imagined fiscal crisis will precipitate Jehoober's Day of Wroth before the end of April (or October, or whatever he's spouting this week). Other than that, everything he says is as you see here. Free speech demands that even a horse's ass gets to fart in public if he wants. Ho hum.
there is a local staircase company owned by on filthy rich jw.
they have a billboard advertising "experienced stair builders or installers needed--aplly within" i have experience.
i should go in with a tape recorder and apply.
DO IT DO IT DO IT!!!!!!!
ANd please let us know how it goes....
i have always felt that my goal as a parent should be to raise healthy (where it is up to me), happy, well-adjusted children who will be a credit to society.
for the most part, i think i'm succeeding.
despite and because of my past involvement with jehovah's witnesses.
First: who is making the diagnoses on these kids? It's vitally important to get an accurate diagnosis after appropriate test batteries have been done. A pediatrician or GP is NOT qualified to make these dx...it takes a complete neurological and psychiatric evaluation to rule out other causes of the behaviors. A reputable neurologist will usually have a counselor for referrals, one who is trained in dealing with ADD, ADHD, and ODD. Don't settle for less. Your kid's future could be at stake.
Several other emotional/psychological problems share symptoms with ADHD and its neurological siblings. It's vital to let the right professionals make the diagnosis, and to use the services of the right counselors to help you make the lifestyle/parenting modifications that will work for your kid. Otherwise you could be wasting your time, money,and energy on the wrong interventions and treatments.
I don't understand why doctors are giving these kids Paxil and tranquilizers. These are not the first-line drugs for treating these disorders. Don't just accept scripts without asking lots of questions, like"why THIS drug? What do you expect this drug to do?"
It's also vitally important that you NOT get lost in dealing with your child's problems. You may find you need to grieve and mourn for your hopes for a 'normal' life for your challenged child. You also need to balance that child's needs against those of your other kids.
There is no shame in hospitalizing an out-of-control child if you can't cope any other way, especially when the ODD results in violent behavior. So long as the experience includes more than restraint and drugging, it could be helpful.
I heartily suggest FAMILY therapy, not just individual therapy. It can help you all learn coping skills, and it involves the whole family in the process of making a life around the child's disability (and it is a disability.) The other kids may feel helpless or overwhelmed, and family therapy will give them a voice and an outlet for their frustration. It can also help you to find a reasonable perspective when you feel like all you can see is your kid's problems.
It's a painful fact that a huge percentage of ADHD and ODD kids never learn successful life management skills. It's not anyone's fault, so don't waste your precious time assigning blame anywhere. It's just one of those hard facts we parents of brain-damaged kids have to accept. (accepting that these neurological glitches are brain damage is hard for some of us, and it's pc to use pretty euphemisms, but facts is facts, and dressing 'em up in pretty packages won't change 'em.)
As for the ADD/ADHD/H thing, be aware that any ADHD kid can concentrate for a long time on something he finds interesting (like video games). It doesn't mean they are faking when their attention sputters and fades at difficult or boring tasks. Also hyperactivity and poor attention span can result from many other sources than the brain dysfunction that characterizes genuine ADHD. Again, proper testing is necessary. When in doubt, get a second opinion. Even doctors can be misinformed about these disorders.
I heartily recommend parents join an advocacy/support group. You can find wonderful resources for parents online. My contact info is probably too old to be useful; my kids have been out of school for years. (and yes, they still at 23&24 are unable to hold a job and stay out of trouble; with the best goodwill in the world they continue to screw up their chances and get into scrapes. If you take it personally, it will kill you. You have to learn to keep them and their probs in some perspective. Don't forget to take care of YOU too.)
I wish you the best in dealing with your children. Let me know if I can help you find resources. YOU ARE NOT ALONE!
