00DAD

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Posts by 00DAD

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  29

  If you could leave the truth again what would you do differently?

  by usualusername in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  if you could leave the truth again what would you do differently?.

  .

  uun .

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  00DAD

  Yes, I would not have played by their rules. I would have kept my thoughts and discoveries to myself. I would have resigned as an elder without explanation to the elder body (that would have driven them crazy).

  I would have stopped going to meetings, also without explanation.

  I would have tried to develop a strategy for reaching my wife and kids with TTATT. (I actually DID try, but was unsure of how to proceed and tried too much, too fast and just lost them all.)

  All that being said, from the WT's Point of View, there is no honorable way to leave. There is however an honorable way to leave from the perspective of the dignity of the individual leaving.

  As the tremendous volume of posts here demonstrate, there's no easy way out, particularly if you have family in and don't want to risk losing/severing those ties. If you are married, the biggest challenge is reaching your mate. If you can do that, you just might make it out ok, especially if the kids are relatively young and not yet baptized.

  Even still, you'll likely lose relationships with extended family and friends. Is your personal sanity and integrity important enough to lose that. For some it is, for others it is not.

  I think, as wha happened? said, fear is the thing that keeps many of us in. But it's hard to overcome that until the spell is completely broken and that takes time.

  Also, those still in but lurking or even better, participating and asking questions here are in a much better position to make a easier transition. At least they're acting with some knowledge that they are right about their doubts and disagreements. They are not alone.

  I wish I'd discovered JWN 10 years ago. I didn't come here until more than 2 years after I'd been DF'd.

  00DAD
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  9

  The Beast-Tower #7: How Are Members of the Faithful and Discreet Slave Selected?

  by sd-7 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  (a) in what year was the faithful slave appointed by jehovah god?

  (matt.

  24:45) who, then, is the master in the illustration?

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  00DAD

  Ditto what SIAM said!
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  34

  Hi guess i may have to introduce myself

  by rickisteel in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hi im from the uk im 42 years old , i was brought up as a witness from birth to 12 years of age i left the meetings with my parents ,.

  i had a wild youth was a bit of a rebel involving alcohol ,drugs , heavy metal and motorcycles , i was thrown out of home at 17 my sister was 14. and was discarded as my parents remarried and neither of there new partners wanted us (baggage) , anyway by the time i was married and 21. somebody spiked my pizza with lsd (cant remember the flavour ) and for the next 3 days i thought the world was ending , i called my dad and rambled some stuff to him ( cant remember exactly but the world was ending in my head) a little while later i got a witness call briefly , i found out where he lived and went and asked him for a bible , he suggested i have a bible study me and the wife took the offer and so it began again , i was baptised in 93 and went from strength to strength in the truth , aux pioneering , volunteered for everything , talks , cleaning , meeting parts etc was soon appointed and moved on giving public talks , assembly parts , shepparding calls etc , then in 1997 my wife fell down a kerb and damaged her cruciate ligaments several operations later and disabled ( by the way the brothers /sisters in the cong were great at this point ) my wife began to act odd 1n 1999 she tried to take her own life and over the next several years took 26 overdoses and spent much of her life in phychiatrict hospital in 2001 she was bi polar disorder type rapid cycling (not the common oh i feel a bit low type bi polar but the full blown rollercoaster ride bi polar) .

  the thing that struck me was i began to feel like a leper and despite a couple of close friends nobody in the cong or on the circuit( long time friends) seemed to care , i brouht up the kids on my own visiting my wife in hospital and caring for her at home , i felt so alone , when i used to take the kids to the meeting / assembly on my own i just got tutts and sad headshakes "she not come" ?

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  00DAD

  Welcome, not much to add. Feel free to vent here. It's good for the soul.

  00DAD
• 
  31

  A quick experiment - what do you get if you Google "JW.org"?

  by cedars in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hi guys.

  i've noticed that a significant number of inbound search engine visits to jwsurvey.org are coming from the keyword "jw.org" - it's currently around 3 to 5 visits per hour.

  i quite like the thought that i'm getting extra traffic thanks to jws typing the address of the official website in their search bar rather than their address bar.. i've done a quick check, and i've noticed that although jw.org occupies the top ranking for this keyword, four of the other links to websites/videos on the first page are all anti-watchtower, including jwsurvey.org and jwleaks.org.. sometimes google tailors its results to suit the individual, so i'm curious to know - is everyone else finding the same thing when they do a search for this keyword?.

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  00DAD

  Here are my results:

  http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=jw.org&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
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  70

  Reaching Loved Ones Stuck in a Cult: An Idea for Discussion

  by 00DAD in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  you may have heard the expression: "the map is not the territory.

  " have you ever thought about how this idea may help you reach your loved ones stuck in a cult?

  the phrase has been attributed to polish-american scientist and philosopher alfred korzybski.

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  00DAD

  Wow, great responses everyone!

  I just checked in quickly to see if I got any hits since last night and was I pleasantly surprised!!!

  Later, I'll try to respond to everyone Flipper-style after I get done with work, but in the meantime, KEEP THOSE GREAT COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS COMING!

  00DAD

  PS - What a difference a change in thread title can make.
• 
  73

  Circuit Assembly Highlights. Day 1

  by DATA-DOG in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  well things were actually pretty boring.

  i mean really boring.

  that's the price of fading i guess.

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  00DAD

  So how is a Ukrainian real estate deal that went sour and had to be resolved in a Soviet court a "Needs of the Circuit" worthy item?

  Unless of course you happen to live in the Ukraine? Do you Data-dog? I didn't think so.

  I heard they talked about that at a recent CA in California. And yet, while on the subject of legal controversies, they somehow failed to mention the Candace Conti case. Why is that I wonder?

  (Not really).

  00DAD
• 
  70

  Reaching Loved Ones Stuck in a Cult: An Idea for Discussion

  by 00DAD in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  you may have heard the expression: "the map is not the territory.

  " have you ever thought about how this idea may help you reach your loved ones stuck in a cult?

  the phrase has been attributed to polish-american scientist and philosopher alfred korzybski.

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  00DAD

  You may have heard the expression: "the map is not the territory." Have you ever thought about how this idea may help you reach your loved ones stuck in a cult?

  The phrase has been attributed to Polish-American scientist and philosopher Alfred Korzybski. It first appeared in print in a paper that Korzybski gave at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1931.

  The expression, although somewhat self-explanatory, is meant to illustrate his view that "an abstraction derived from something, or a reaction to it, is not the thing itself." Take a minute and think about what that implies. Think about what it really means.

  Korzybski held that many people do confuse "maps with territories;" that is, they confuse models of reality with reality itself.

  This is a good description of JW beliefs. Over and over again they are indoctrinated with a set of beliefs to the point that they come to accept them as real. This is further reinforced with scriptures that talk about "realities though not beheld" and the "reality" of "things unseen."

  For those of us that were once believers, we can certainly relate to the truth of this. We also know first-hand how frustratingly difficult it can be to get our family and friends still-in to wake up and see the inconsistencies, contradictions, corruption and outright lies of the WTBTS.

  A lot of this has to do with the way their belief system has been carefully constructed over time. Part of this is that JW's are trained to only see things from a very particular point of view. Not too surprisingly this is the WTBTS's point of view.

  In his recent book, our own JWN member and soon-to-be celebrated author, OTWO used the analogy of anamorphosis to explain the way JW's look at the world and perceive things. They are trained to see everything from only a certain perspective; and when they do, everything makes sense according to that particular perspective: The JW paradigm.

  Here's a pretty mind blowing video that illustrates how completely deceiving things can be when viewed from only a single perspective, a perspective that is not coincidentally pre-determined and completely controlled by the one presenting the illusion.

  Amazing Anamorphic Illusions!

  In the case of JW's, the map IS the territory.

  This got me thinking. Instead of trying to reach our loved ones with a direct assault on their beliefs, perhaps there is a better way. In fact, the direct approach almost never works because their defenses automatically go up.

  Instead, what if, bit by bit, we could encourage them to consider things from a slightly different perspective, to get them to look at reality from a different point of view? If we could do that, then they would begin to see what a flat illusion JW "theology" really is. Once they see it for themselves we wouldn't have to explain anything to them.

  The illusion would be blown!

  The trick would be revealed, the fraud exposed.

  Your comments are welcome.

  00DAD

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  [Note: I recently broached this subject on another thread, but it got surprisingly little notice. So I thought I'd try posting it again with a different title focusing on my PURPOSE rather than merely the SUBJECT matter.]
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  18

  Blondie's Comments You Will Not Hear at the 12-02-2012 Watchtower Study (ADVERSITIES)

  by blondie in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  comments you will not hear at the 12-02-2012 wt study (october 15, 2012, pages 7-11)(adversities).

  review comments will be headed by comments.

  5. what helped abraham and sarah to cope.

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  00DAD

  Just to be clear, I wasn't even anywhere close to " dwelling on situations we cannot change [which] may only tear us down" until I started reading this article. It wasn't even on my mental radar.

  In other words, I wasn't thinking about "BLUE" until the WT said, "Don't think of BLUE!"
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  64

  more abuse in today's watchtower study

  by solomon in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  today's study picks on the most vulnerable among us.

  the mentally ill. .

  the watchtower apparently hasn't learned that depression and mental illness are that a medical condition.

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  00DAD

  JW GoneBad: My guess is that the ‘sister’ in the pictures is suffering from some sort of depression associated with low self-esteem.

  I would respectfully disagree. The doctor in the picture has a stethoscope around his neck which is a subtle clue as to the kind of medicine he practices.

  

  Doctors that deal with depression would not likely have a stethoscope as a prop.

  Notice the caption. Apparently Jehovah now provides medical advice.

  00DAD
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  18

  Blondie's Comments You Will Not Hear at the 12-02-2012 Watchtower Study (ADVERSITIES)

  by blondie in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  comments you will not hear at the 12-02-2012 wt study (october 15, 2012, pages 7-11)(adversities).

  review comments will be headed by comments.

  5. what helped abraham and sarah to cope.

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  00DAD

  That "power of positive thinking" point in paragraph 11 made me laugh. They write, " Constantly dwelling on situations we cannot change may only tear us down. " And yet THEY are the ones that start so many lessons out just like this one, focusing on adversities and the inevitable doom and gloom.

  Classic example of WT Indoctrination method:

  • Don't think of blue.
  • Why are you thinking of blue? Don't you know it's bad for you?
  • We know there's a lot of blue out there in the mean-old, nasty world alienated from Jehovah. But you really need to stop thinking about blue because it will only make you depressed.
  • Notice how other JW's that were depressed by constantly thinking about blue got better:
    • "I read the WT from cover-to-cover and that made me happy again!" says one sister suffering from breast cancer. She quit thinking about blue and started thinking about pink.
    • One brother in a Third World Country lost his job, his house and all his worldly possessions including his one-eyed Chihuahua, but he was able to stop thinking about blue because he never stopped engaging in the preaching work. Notice his comment, "Even though there were no doors to knock on because they'd all been destroyed in the most devastating natural disaster ever to occur, we never lost our joy because we knew we were making Jehovah happy by giving Watchower magazines to people that had no food!"
  • So STOP thinking about blue.
  • There! Now don't you feel better? We knew you would.

  00DAD