Finkelstein
This was pre-internet so I was on my own to investigate the inaccuracies and troubles.
How many years passed before you found an EXJW to exchange thoughts? Or did one of your family members wake up with you?
how many of us were woken up by some apostate yelling false prophets at a convention?.
how many of us were woken up by someone holding a sign and yelling, what happened to 1975.
how many of us were coerced to investigate the wt because some ex-jw pulled up a bunch of old watchtowers magazines and told us to read the false predictions?.
Finkelstein
This was pre-internet so I was on my own to investigate the inaccuracies and troubles.
How many years passed before you found an EXJW to exchange thoughts? Or did one of your family members wake up with you?
how many of us were woken up by some apostate yelling false prophets at a convention?.
how many of us were woken up by someone holding a sign and yelling, what happened to 1975.
how many of us were coerced to investigate the wt because some ex-jw pulled up a bunch of old watchtowers magazines and told us to read the false predictions?.
Stealth
it was things that were said from the convention platform that drove me away and the lack of love shown during one the worst crisis in my life.
I believe this is a KEY factor in starting the process of waking up. The Organization itself is doing a better job of waking people up than all of us apostates put together.
how many of us were woken up by some apostate yelling false prophets at a convention?.
how many of us were woken up by someone holding a sign and yelling, what happened to 1975.
how many of us were coerced to investigate the wt because some ex-jw pulled up a bunch of old watchtowers magazines and told us to read the false predictions?.
KateWild 32 minutes ago
Cedars woke me up. He bumped his site on Google some how and I clicked on it by mistake.....
Wow Kate, that like hitting the lottery by mistake.
how many of us were woken up by some apostate yelling false prophets at a convention?.
how many of us were woken up by someone holding a sign and yelling, what happened to 1975.
how many of us were coerced to investigate the wt because some ex-jw pulled up a bunch of old watchtowers magazines and told us to read the false predictions?.
Simon
I had walked past apostates waving banners many times at assemblies and they were totally unconvincing and reinforced the belief that 'we' were right and 'we' were special.t I don't think it helps many - aggressive in-you-face disruptive tactics are more for the benefit of the person doing them than anyone watching IMO.
Totally agree, and I'm having to change my approach and bite my tongue many times.
how many of us were woken up by some apostate yelling false prophets at a convention?.
how many of us were woken up by someone holding a sign and yelling, what happened to 1975.
how many of us were coerced to investigate the wt because some ex-jw pulled up a bunch of old watchtowers magazines and told us to read the false predictions?.
Londo111
But it was an uphill battle just to start investigating.
Oh yes, it was like climbing Mt. Everest in you underwear.
how many of us were woken up by some apostate yelling false prophets at a convention?.
how many of us were woken up by someone holding a sign and yelling, what happened to 1975.
how many of us were coerced to investigate the wt because some ex-jw pulled up a bunch of old watchtowers magazines and told us to read the false predictions?.
how many of us were woken up by some apostate yelling false prophets at a convention?.
how many of us were woken up by someone holding a sign and yelling, what happened to 1975.
how many of us were coerced to investigate the wt because some ex-jw pulled up a bunch of old watchtowers magazines and told us to read the false predictions?.
How many of us were woken up by some Apostate yelling “False Prophets” at a convention?
How many of us were woken up by someone holding a Sign and yelling, “What happened to 1975”
How many of us were coerced to investigate the WT because some EX-JW pulled up a bunch of OLD Watchtowers magazines and told us to read the false predictions?
How many of us would listen when we were told we were in a cult?
How many of us would even listen to an EX-JW aka-Apostate?
In our view the whole world was lying in the power of the wicked one.
I’ve been noticing that most of us took the initiative to explore the Watchtower either on the internet or in a book published by an EX-JW like COC by Ray Franz not because someone recommended it to us but because WE WANTED TO INVESTIGATE. No one forced us and no one encouraged us. It was all us.
What usually happens is that “WE”
see the hypocrisy or the inconsistencies in the organization or
we or a family member is treated unjustly by someone in the Kingdom Hall, like by some elder, or judicially by elders or
we notice a “Change” that really affected us, (Think Overlapping Generation)
and eventually it starts the process of opening our eyes and it leads us to exploring information either in book form or internet.
So it seems that the majority of us took the initiative by ourselves, when we were fed up and ready to explore the Watchtower on our own without anyone’s permission.
But very few of us were woken up by some EX-JW-Apostate.
Perhaps this will give us an idea on how to help those we love that are still trapped in the cult. It has to be kept simple. Just like waking up a baby from a deep sleep. Shout, and he cries, picking him up slowly and caressing him softly will make him more responsive.
How many of you were woken by an Apostate?
How many of you took the initiative on your own to wake up?
i made a medium level mistake at work today, and when i make mistakes it really shakes me up and takes me a long time to recover.
it completely rattles me, makes me feel awful about myself.
my mind keeps going back to the mistake reliving how i could have let it happen.
Faye, I was just thinking about that recently. I used to be a perfectionist big time, I mean everything had to be just right, otherwise I would go crazy thinking about it.
I'm not so much anymore and I was trying to figure out WHY. What happened to me that I'm not like that anymore? What did I do to change that part of my personality?
I have a hypothesis. Since I woke up two years ago, I've read tons of books on all kinds of subjects. Books on Psychology, Anthropology, Biology, criminal behavior, history, culture, and I think it has slowly changed my thinking without me being aware of it.I started noticing that Non-jw perfection is totally different from WT perfection.
The WT focuses a lot on striving for perfection not just in this life but during the 1000 year reign. Remember the illustration that all humans MISS the MARK of PERFECTION. How did that make you feel? I know for me, it made me feel like I had to do better and I had to try harder to get closer to the Bullseye.It was never ending.
This has a major effect on the members. As a former elder, you would be surprise how many times I heard the words, "But I'm Imperfect, I'm a sinner, I missed the mark. This was for little things. Like a sister would confess that she had bad thoughts when she saw a handsome man, or a brother who confessed that he had a dream about another woman. A lot of the friends wanted to be "Perfect" according to the WT definition of perfection. That idea was ingrained in us in a very subtly way and I think a lot of us don't realize the powerful effects the idea of WT perfection had on our lives.
They really messed us up didn't they.
i won't pretend to know things that i don't but just look at the incredible rate of change we've witnessed recently.
it seems that since candace conti and the australian royal commission the watchtower are scrabbling around to shore up their finances in the face of unprecedented legal action against them.. abuse settlement claims are one thing but what happens when children die as a result of your religious teachings?!
you can bet wt legal are arguing for a complete rewrite of policy to protect the organisation from litigation.. do you think their religious privilege will protect them forever?
They will "Never" come out and change it in a straight forward manner. They will put some type of spin to it. For example they might say;
A blood transfusion is acceptable if the Blood has been fractionated in a sterilized container to recognize its use as something holy to Jehovah. If such is the case, then the conscience of some--- might allow them to accept a blood transfusion with the understanding that blood belongs to Jehovah and just like the Israelites shared a burnt offering with the priest, a dedicated member will share the blood sacrifice with the Great High Priest, Jesus.
New Light
thank you all for your sincere encouragement during these last few weeks.
finally, she is at peace.
i was with her , holding her hand when she died.