Posts by flamegrilled

300

ALERT: NEW LAWSUIT settlement - $13 MILLION

by Watchtower-Free in

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/135m-awarded-to-bible-teacher-gonzalo-campos-alleged-abuse-victim-jose-lopez-281031832.html.

(published thursday, oct 30, 2014).

thursday, oct 30, 2014 updated at 11:58 pm pdt.

flamegrilled

I would like to express my thanks to Barbara for making the court documents available. I was interested to read them and before I found this thread I tried to get them from the San Diego court website. It was a pain but I finally found how to do it, but then I couldn't figure out which ones would be best to give attention to. So I added several to my shopping cart that sounded like they might be of interest and found that my bill would have already amounted to over $150 to read just those few.

Then I found Barbara's links. And now I have them all to read. We should recognize how vaulable this information is for those who want to confirm the facts of the matter and not just get soundbites from news reports.

I for one am changing my opinion in a radical way. I have previously rationalized some of the mistakes made by the org, and the elders at a local level, but so far just on reading two of the court documents I feel completely different about what is going on.

I can now see that the determination to protect an organization has completely trumped any basic human decency, never mind about genuine Christian morality.

Whilst I recognize that this is still a moral minefield I do feel the need to recant some of the apologetic things I posted on other websites in the past.

I was wrong. And I am sorry. I wish I could find some of those old threads to post personal apologies, but I can't so I'll just offload here for now.

FG

33

Sleep Paralysis - YOUR EXPERIENCES

by Black Man in

jw
friends

so what have been your experiences with sleep paralysis?

any connection to astral projection?

this has interested me recently as i used to have sleep paralysis quite often years ago.

flamegrilled

I've experienced SP pretty much all my life. I also dream very vividly almost all the time. Sometimes i have lucid dreams in which I act as an explorer of what is possible. I can confirm that I dream in vivid color. I can feel acute pain in dreams that is not present when I awake. I can be free of pain even though going to sleep and waking up I might actually have a particular pain. I can see incredible detail in objects - things can seem more vivid than real life. Examining the veins of leaves of trees seems to be one I do often. I can speak foreign languages fluently in some dreams (although I suspect that it's probably some words I know combined with a fluent form of jibberish). I compose or hear some amazing music in dreams, although I have to really write down a few motifs soon after waking to capture any of it. I can smell things in dreams - smells that are not possible to have been present in the environment in which I was sleeping. People in my dreams can surprise me by things they say - for instance asking me a question to which I do not know the answer - and then they tell me the answer (but how can that be if everything is generated in my own brain?). Of course sometimes I can fly or jump long distances too. Those dreams are awesome when I can get a good measure of control over them.

On the original topic I get regular sleep paralysis and it never ceases to completely freak me out. I often think I might never get out of it. It also happens several levels deep "Inception" style. I get out of my sleep paraysis only to find myself being paralized in another dream. Those are the worst because I have no idea how many levels I might have to go through to get out. 3 is the maximum I can recall, but even after 2 you think it's going to go on forever. I think I see the room around me in perfect detail, but sometimes I might hear a person coming up the stairs and I can do nothing about it in my frozen state. Those are really bad.

Interestingly I have for a very long time had repeating fream about seeing strange phenomina in the sky. Things start off fairly normal, and then spacecraft or unidentified object appear, or distant brilliant galaxies appear to close in on the earth. I think Matt 24:29,30 got deeply lodged in subconscious a long time ago.

For all the scary stuff I wouldn't trade my dreams for anything. It's like a whole other existence at night that I look forward to.

FG

15

Special Meeting at Bethel by GB just before Annual Meeting

by notsurewheretogo in

i see there is a special meeting held by the gb at bethel a week before the annual meeting.. .

wonder what that will be about?.

.

flamegrilled

@Tim Hooper ... priceless!

39

I HAD MY BICYCLE STOLEN!

by Terry in

jw
friends

three months ago i had to stop driving my car.

it wouldn't pass inspection and it would cost about $3k to get it up to par.. well, it's a 98 honda accord with about 179 thousand miles on it, what did i expect?.

.. i decided i would switch to riding a bicycle instead.. it has worked out fairly well.. i put about 10 miles a day on it.

flamegrilled

Bummer! Sorry to hear that. I know the feeling as it happened to me but a little differently. I had an expensive bike chained up. Thief stole the saddle only and not wanting to ride home without it I left it chained that evening which was a stupid mistake. (I had had a couple of pints which may have impaired my decision making ability.) They came back and took the whole thing later.

When I replaced it I started to do what jgnat's son does if I had any doubts about the area. But to snatch it right in front of you ... I think I'd have got caught out the same.

26

All these people will be destroy unless they become JWs (Watchtower teaching)

by hardtobeme in

jw
friends

no matter what they do, they will be destroyed forever!!!!

i can't believe i used to believe that s**t!!!!.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kx28dw9devu.

flamegrilled

Obviously all those helping people ARE already JWs. Nobody else on the planet would show such qualities.

159

An important message from a PRACTICING Jehovah's witness

by Sparks in

jw
friends

hi, i am also a practicing jehovah's witness and very proud of it,to say the very-very least..!

i am a middle-aged man with many decades of being a witness of jehovah god in england.. this important letter is personally to you, just as many of the bible's 88 letters are to be taken personal by you the reader.

i am writing to you to urge you to take stock of your life, think what your future holds for you.

flamegrilled

sparks

I'm just wondering how you can write this stuff after posting at one time ...

"but not before I metaphorically shit on the Ciruit Overseers carpet infront of the gang of six arse-lickers around him" (http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/experiences/70376/1/oh-my-God-what-have-I-done-Tomb-Raider-Horror-stuff)

You say you are a "middle-aged" man, but the above looks like it would have been written by a vitriolic 15 year old, and that was 10 years ago.

Weird.

Your attempt to now support the org is unbalanced and inaccurate on many counts. It seems you have invested yourself into much propaganda over the past few years.

But I suspect they would be just as happy not to have you playing the apologist for them in view of your prior posts. No doubt any actual JW would consider that you are doing more harm than good.

FG

37

What's the greatest movie no-one's ever heard of?

by rory-ks in

you know, that film you really love, but when you mention it everyone's, like, "eh?".

i'll get the ball rolling.

for me: ulee's gold..

flamegrilled

Off the Map (2003 movie NOT 2011 movie of same name)

8

Angels and Women - A review

by LivingTheDream in

i first found and read this book as a young man during the early 1980s while visiting the bethel library.

this library was located at the world headquarters of jehovah's witnesses in brooklyn new york.

this book exists in its form now because of the interest that religion's leaders had in the original work seola, from where this book was adapted.

flamegrilled

As a book it's a probably only a compelling read to those who have some interest in the Biblical account of the flood.

As far as it really being of demonic origin I don't think it is such, at least not any more so than any other book.

I bought your book and enjoyed it by the way. I hope it's doing well for you. I know it's a lot of work and takes a lot of dedication to write a book.

FG

26

My Judicial Meeting was 6 WEEKS ago! Help me with a question.

by Comatose in

my judicial meeting was 6 weeks or more ago, and still no action.

i used a lawyer and a letter to them after i had already met with them and admitted everything.

the crazy part was they didn't tell me that night if i was df or not.

flamegrilled

I guess it still depends on your circumstances and the facts of the case. All other things being equal then probably the hiring of a lawyer will not go in your favor from their point of view, as others have already commented.

But ultimately the elders may have simply not have found grounds for DF. It's hard to know without knowing more about it.

I'm sure we're all interested in the possible legal loophole and how this progresses for you.

On a personal level, I wish you all the best with the outcome insofar as keeping unity with your family.

FG

203

My Explanation of Why They Got it Wrong About Blood Using Only the NWT

by cofty in

10 " any israelite or any alien living among them who eats any bloodi will set my face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from his people.

12 therefore i say to the israelites, "none of you may eat blood, nor may an alien living among you eat blood.

15 'anyone, whether native-born or alien, who eats anything found dead or torn by wild animals must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be ceremonially unclean till evening; then he will be clean.

flamegrilled

OP....I'd love to consider your point. But when you say that your argument caused an elder to immediately resign and never attend another meeting....you immediately lost me. Makes me think you're a bit delusional. XstuckX

I wouldn't so quickly dismiss the power of this (and other) arguments on the blood doctrine to move elders to resign. It's one of those topics that is very personal to some people for obvious reasons. Unlike 1914 which some can just move into the category of "I'll pretend it doesn't matter for now", that is not the case when the blood doctrine is clearly exposed to be unscriptural. The finer point of the law that Cofty uses are incontrovertible in making the necessary point, and yet they are dealt with in such an illogical way in official JW doctrine.

As an extension of Cofty's points it is good to be familiar with the ways that the Jews interpret their own law of Moses under the principle of "Pikuach Nefesh". The principles are completely in harmony with the Mosaic Law and yet clearly demonstrate the boundaries at which the treatment of blood itself becomes secondary to the preservation of life. And it's all based on scripture.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pikuach_nefesh