notalone

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Posts by notalone

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  33

  My parents found out

  by BlackWolf in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  so in my last post i talked about how i had told my younger siblings how i didn't plan to get baptized or ever be a witness.

  i thought i could trust them but i guess i was wrong, they're just kids after all.

  my oldest brother (who's 11) told on me today.

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  notalone

  Your parents think this is 'just a phase' you are going through.They know if they can keep you enmeshed just a couple more years they have you. You are at that age when young people go into the world and find who they want to be. In college everyone will be new. There will be friendships, ideas and then once you have a degree the ability to really build a life that is not dependent on them and the org. If they can keep you under their 'protection' and control your environment,they will undermine your resolve and honesty and replace it with deceit and no self respect. This is a war for you soul, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. In witness minds all is fair in 'theocratic war' and they are going to use everything at their disposal to control you.But here's the thing you have all the power it is your decision. All you have to do is say to yourself ,' This is who I am and I will not compromise my integrity. I have to live with myself.' Then live
  
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  14

  For all in the USA - Happy 4th of July!

  by ttdtt in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  it's nice to say that:).

  i am looking forward to a 4th party with "worldly people" and fireworks!.

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  notalone

  This year we are going to go out and enjoy our neighbors over the top displays.( quieter and cheaper with no crowds)
  
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  24

  Last Memorial Experiences

  by NoviceLocs14 in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i'll share mine first.... i had never missed a memorial for at least a quarter of a century of my life.

  i was kind of raised to believe that missing the memorial was a sin in itself.. by 2013 memorial season, i was missing most of my meetings (even though i was still technically part of my foreign language congregation), and i had just come off the pioneer list.

  i still made plans to attend the memorial (god forbid if i missed that lol).. i knew that typically our memorials were around 9 pm, since we usually got last priority (being a foreign language hall and all).

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  notalone

  2015- My husband had just had a medical emergency and suddenly lost part of his sight in one eye which had alerted the Doctors that he was going to have to have open heart surgery. We rushed there at the last minute. He was only in his forties and he had been raised in this Hall. Everyone could care less. We woke up by that fall.

  2016- We found out the memorial was a black mass. We told our friends we were not going to tell anyone where we were going as the elders were hounding our friends for information about us. We held a commemoration of the last supper the night before Passover and we all partook.
  
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  11

  JW harassment

  by blasphemous.mouse in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  is there a way to have a jw who will not leave someone alone spammed with anti-cult information and anti-jw information?

  .

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  notalone

  That would only confirm how 'mentally diseased' apostates are and would set off the 'bunker' mentality. You could have a lawyer send a letter to this person stating that you wish no further contact and that if it continues you will be filing stalking charges. You could also ask the lawyer if this issue involves religion it would be considered a hate crime in the area in which you live?
  
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  33

  My parents found out

  by BlackWolf in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  so in my last post i talked about how i had told my younger siblings how i didn't plan to get baptized or ever be a witness.

  i thought i could trust them but i guess i was wrong, they're just kids after all.

  my oldest brother (who's 11) told on me today.

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  notalone

  My family is going through some very intensive counseling right now. The one thing that keeps coming up is setting boundaries and not staying in relationships with those who will not accept your right to set them. The longer you allow someone to ignore your boundaries the less you will think of yourself. You teach others how to treat you. If you say ' I do not want to be a witness. I do not share these beliefs' You are setting a boundary. Their response shows they do not respect you. Your response to them tells them who you are and how you will be treated. Break the control. Once you turn 18 you can legally decide if this behavior is acceptable. Is it? If you don't value who you are and don't feel you have the right to free will, to choose your own life, then no one else will. I know this is difficult. You have been conditioned to capitulate.You have been conditioned to fear. This will always bring you under the control of others. This is your decision and yours alone, and this will effect the direction of your life,the person you are and will be. Think carefully. Choose don't react. Stay calm. Be the adult. This is your life.
  
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  41

  What woke you up?

  by MrRoboto in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  for me, i think it was just the right time as i was starting to wake up on other fronts as well (anyone who had went through these will know what i mean).

  but it started when i was looking for what info goes on a publisher card, which led to me reading one person's story (ex bethelite) which was pretty crazy to an all-in jw but who trusts those apostates...?.

  then i started watching videos on cults, as if my subconscious was trying to tell my concord mind something... when i saw a particular one about a young man in lds getting ready to start their 2 year preaching campaign, including a school, social activities etc, i realized that i couldn't tell the difference between the folks of this mormon cult and the jws (save for some religious differences) .

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  notalone

  I was totally in and a big researcher of the publications. Because my family had been in so long I had access growing up to all the older publications. I was quite good at calling out things by using these publications and the Bible. I started finding myself arguing with the articles. I started blacking out things that weren't right and writing the biblical defense on the side. My family was getting a little fed up with me. Then our family had the JW molestation experience. We had witnesses, medical evidence and multiple victims and were told we cpuld tell no one, not to go to the police and had to continue in the congregation with this person. When we got a restraining order and called the police when the elders helped this person violate it we were told our invitation to attend the hall was going to be rescinded.While looking up this term online I found Beorean pickets, read everything and then I dared to start coming to this site where I found out about ARC and watched it live. There is nothing that will ever cause me or my family to return.
  
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  32

  DA myself to relieve great pressure?

  by Isambard Crater in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  my lifelong mental illnesses, fuelled significantly by the borg, are very bad at the moment and result in me missing lots of midweek meetings, but i haven't missed a sunday in years except the occasional vacation.. the nature of my mental and emotional illnesses mean that i, as a physically in and mentally out pimo, take to heart very painfully admonishment from the platform to never miss meetings, preach all i can, and so on.. okay, i report 3 hours each month on average and no elder has ever said anything, but when they make comments on the platform, i feel such great guilt and shame, but also anger, as they do not understand my illnesses and when i do mention my situation to elders, they kind of minimise and joke about it.. some other sisters in my congregation started "officially" not attending midweek meetings a few year's ago because of their own health circumstances, but i know for a fact that some elders look down on them for this reason, not showing real understanding deep down even if they do on the surface.. i have reached the point where i want to hand in a da letter as a cry for help, or more like a clear indicator to them that when i say i'm not well enough to attend midweek, i really mean it and it's not just an excuse.

  sure, i'm only 42, but i can still be too fragile to go out at night with a 30 minute drive both ways..

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  notalone

  I have been reading your post for a couple of days. I have been really thinking about the situation you are facing. You have been raised in a cult that controls not just what you do but the way you see yourself and handle decisions. I remember last years video where the 'elder' counseled himself for his thought pattern. 'Bad boy, you know you should never have a negative thought about someone else in the org, unless they don't come to meetings, go out in service, sell their home, pioneer, have negative thoughts or know the secret knock.'

  What other society other than a cult has 50 and 60 year old adults running for permission for their life decisions to a 30 something 'elder'? You are 42. You are an adult. If you want your father, or anyone else to treat you like an adult you are going to have to accept nothing less. DON'T ASK FOR PERMISSION from anyone even us.

  You are afraid, maybe even terrified. I know. We knew for a fact so many things. We knew why things are the way are. We knew where things were headed. We knew what was right and wrong. Now there is uncertainty. You know where you are now. You know what decisions you want to make. That is why you are here. Where you hesitate is fear. Fear of the unknown and fear of the known. Deep down you know how your family and other jw's will react. You want to find a way to make it different, to make them different. This is your choice how they act is their choice.

  Now, the the unknown . Unknown is not bad, it is unknown. You want someone to say everything is going to be okay. If anyone tells you that, they are selling something. There are going to be good days. There are going to be bad days. There are going to be days that go in all directions.In the end we want to look back at our decisions and say we always made the best decision we could at that moment in our life. In 15 years what do you want to look back and see? Do that.
  
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  20

  Who has ever succeeded in getting an elder fired ( demoted )?

  by Chook in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  it's nearly a job for life if you don't literally fu.. up..

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  notalone

  An Elder with alot of connections was going after a new sister that his wife had studied with. He was using scripture (Leah and Rachel) to confuse her. I went to the elders- nothing. At the next circuit assembly I went to the CO. He called at meeting right there at the assembly. The elder was removed.
  
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  6

  I don't want to go to the meeting and I feel good saying that

  by notalone in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  so last night i got an emotional call from a friend, the same friend that recently said "we sound like a cult.

  " in last night's conversation she said she was tired of the truth.

  tired of jehovah.

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  notalone

  I was extremely careful. I always use scripture and phrases used by jw's. Often it is the very teachings put forward over the years that show their hypocrisy.When my family first started waking up it was the old articles from when I was young that showed me something was going on, something was very wrong, then piece by piece things became clearer.I believe that if someone had said something to me too early I would just have panicked and began reciting all the jw mind mantras. I talked with her today and she has already talked to someone from the other congregation and is following through with the move. I suspect it won't be long before she gets fed up with them. I have time and I am going to hang in there.
  
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  42

  “Tree of good and bad” means what?

  by venus in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  if “tree of good and bad” were literal, it would mean adam and eve would know what is “good and bad” only after eating of that tree.

  however, even before eating of it, they would think “it is good for us to eat of this tree” which means they are already endowed knowledge of “good and bad.” that means “tree of good and bad” is symbolic of something.. since religious organizations interpret this differently, each reader has to adopt his own conclusion.

  for me it looks like this: one thinks of good and bad in relation to himself—if something is beneficial for him he would say it is good for him, and bad for him if it is not beneficial.

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  notalone

  It is so funny you brought up this topic. I have been discussing this with my husband recently. I made the decision to read the different holy texts and to see what they actually say and not add outside interpretation. So this is what I am thinking about at this point. It says there was a tree of knowledge of 'good and bad'. The term 'of good and bad' could also mean 'everything'. There was also a tree of life.

  The bible does not say it was there as a test for mankind just that they were there. What we know is that it is stated that after eating from the tree they did understand things they didn't understand before. The human brain has a physical learning process. It is able to progress in learning when the synapses myelinate and cannot progress until that happens.

  What if it was always the intention of God to have Adam and Eve eat from the tree when they had matured enough. We know that God said that man was good not perfect( or complete) when he was created. It may have been (my own idea) that the eating of the tree caused an premature myelinating that they were not ready for and that this would cause problems. Like a three year old cooking on a stove or a five year old driving. If this were the case there would be a reason for the tree and it would explain the physical reaction to eating from it. It could also fit with the description God gave of the results of this premature knowledge. Also it was stated that if Adam and Eve ate from the tree of life they would continue to live. God may have known that they the way had physically altered themselves would become genetic and would only lead to problems that would need to be addressed.