Posts by raven101

2

news for you

by raven101 in

jw
friends

hi, its been a long time since i was here.

don't know if anyone remembers me or how many are still here who were then?.

hope everyone is doing well, both old and new!.

raven101

Hi, its been a long time since I was here. Don't know if anyone remembers me or how many are still here who were then?

Hope everyone is doing well, both old and new!

Me? Finals week, first semester at University in home state. Doing very well. Moved back here from Northern California just this January (transfer from Community College there).

New job, convenience store. Didn't take long for witnesses (former 'brothers and sisters') to track me down as they came in for coffee on way to service.

First they came in ones and twos, some kind and generally 'concerned' for me and this degraded all the way to the appearance of the arch-nemesis with her very saccharine and voraciously curious brand of 'concern', (she's a peach, but I should thank her for being the first to introduce my then controlled mind to the concept of witnesses being anything other than "god's chosen people").

It got more and more interesting and if I had time I would tell the whole story and have you all ROLLING WITH LAUGHTER . . . but

it culminated with a grand visitation one saturday morning (my boss was aghast, I had been keeping him up on the saga and he happened to be there that morning) when 10 of them literally swarmed in "for coffee" oh, and two "elders" were there who thought they might 'save my life' by the way . . . .

long story short they wanted to talk, had some "WONDERFUL NEW NEWS" to share with me.

what could it be?I'm actually kind of curious . . . but it was REALLY CREEPY the way he smiled when he said that

(couldnt talk then, HELLO I AM AT WORK HERE!!!) anyhow

work full time school full time can't return their calls but

just wanted you all to know

I AM looking forward to the time when the elders drop in (the arch-nemesis pops in to attempt to woo me with saccharine-arsenic love pretty regularly, but I have NO 'GOOD NEWS' FOR HER) so I can tell them . . .

that I am no longer a believer

and to please take my name off their list.

So I am finally to this point, no longer angry or sad . . . fearing no more and content to wait for the perfect time.

And I do want to thank all here, then and now, and Simon for having the compassion and foresight to start this site . . . I worked through a very profound and important part of my recovery process right here.

Thanks all . . . take care,

raven101

(sorry if that ornery old Einstein tags still hanging around here at the bottom, rather inappropriate for this thread)

3

KNOW YOUR ENEMY: ALLAH

by Bhagavad in

jw
friends

time to get your heads out of the sand.

read http://www.kurtsaxon.com.

know your enemy: allah!!

raven101

Say aren't the Catholics and Protestants over in Ireland Catholic and Protestant or something?

9

What I figured on Jehovah...

by Max Divergent in

jw
friends

when i was leaving i figured that jehovah is one of these things: .

2. exists but is different to how the wts describe him (her, them, it...), .

3. exists as the wts describes him and is deeply saddened and angered by the inequities and sins committed by his name people but extends to them benevolence and forgivness unconditionally, .

raven101

Hey Max! You know those possiblities are the precise ones that ran thru my mind when I logically tried to assess them, the possible conclusions were the same as well,

. . . . . coincidence?

freee at last,

Raven101

6

what my friend said about jw's

by raven101 in

i told a friend just recently that i had been raised a jw.

she had a very interesting observation/opinion about the witness families and individuals she has known.. first i should say that she is an intelligent, well-travelled girl, with a very clear-eyed knack for cutting to the chase on a given subject.

she has a gift for not letting trivialities cloud an issue, and she was not raised in any religion.

raven101

I told a friend just recently that I had been raised a jw. She had a very interesting observation/opinion about the witness families and individuals she has known.

First I should say that she is an intelligent, well-travelled girl, with a very clear-eyed knack for cutting to the chase on a given subject. She has a gift for not letting trivialities cloud an issue, and she was not raised in any religion. She says religions are very interesting to her, and it must be because she has no reference for that kind of indoctrination.

What did she say about the jw family she knew as a child, as well as the individuals she has known in her life?

She said the thing that struck her most about them was how unhappy they were just under the surface.

She didn't have a problem for the most part about the holiday stuff, evidently they had explained the reasons behind it and she figured it satisfactory if thats how they wanted to view it.

But the unhappiness thing really struck her beyond anything else. She felt that under an outwardly happy appearence they were in fact unhappy people.

Interesting

Raven101

49

WOULD YOU BE AN ACTIVE WITNESS IF????

by minimus in

would you be an active witness or even an inactive one if you could change a few things?

for example: let's say the blood issue could be resolved, would you stay?

or if 1914 doctrine was dissolved or the disfellowshipping/ shunning view changed?

raven101

I can honestly say I absolutely would not go back no matter what they changed.

I really and truly do not believe in religion at all anymore.

I believe in love

the real thing

some people call it god and ascribe to 'him' personality that conflicts with what it is about, something in oppostition to truth.

All religions do this, I have no use for them

Like SaintSatan I am grappling with freedom

however I have my faith in love

issallrite

Raven101

62

The Wisest Man Who Ever Lived

by comforter in

jw
friends

there have been many sages who walked the face of the earth.

the wisest man who ever lived, however, is jesus christ.

jesus made an impact on history that very few men have matched.

raven101

No Comforter, I can't agree. We only know about Jesus what OTHERS wrote. He wrote nothing himself.

Personally from reading I have done, I would have to say (not disCOUNTING jesus) that the wisest man who ever lived was Jiddu Krishnamurti. He only died in the 1980's.

Oh and Lao Tse seemed to be quite a sage too.

Jesus may have ranked with them too, however you have to wade through so much sewage (spewed by the writers of the bible) to get through to his meaning that I don't believe a reasonable person can assume this.

Raven101

13

Anybody familiar with Tarot?

by raven101 in

.

once upon a time i thought it was quite demonic, i eventually ended up making a living at it for a time.. jung did some research in the field.. does anyone else have experience with the cards?.

raven101

Personally I don't really feel its appropriate to ask specific questions about the future, one: I don't believe anything is set in stone . . two: people are almost without fail trying to gain a sort of control or upperhand with their line of questioning.

I think that's pretty futile, it's like trying to outsmart yourself.

When I used them for people what stood out to me were specific patterns of self-defeat, challenges which have been unmet and therefore become more and more powerful and prevalent.

Like letting a small rivulet become a river.

This applies, and can be made manifest, in all aspects of life . . . my goal was to help people see these patterns and how to over come them.

My main goal was to help people meet the commitment and responsibility they have to THEMSELVES. If they can do that, everything else falls into place.

I remember when it came to me during a reading that you CANNOT teach your children to properly value themselves BUT THROUGH EXAMPLE!

You cannot stay in a bad relationship, for your children and expect them to have a good one, you cannot do a job you despise in order for them to have more THINGS and expect them to follow their dreams.

You cannot fail to value and express your loves and talents, and ever expect them to fulfill their own, and live a full and true life.

These things became very apparent to me while doing tarot for strangers over the phone, I probably did well over a thousand readings.

Again, yes I think the cards can speak the truth . . . but that truth tho mysterious and beautiful is not exclusive to cards, or omens, or some all-powerful diety . . . that truth flows in and through everything.

We just need to pay more attention.

Raven101

17

From Jehovah's Point of View

by Stealth in

jw
friends

i received the following email from a dub today.. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------.

from jehovah's point of view .

if a thousand years are in the eyes of jehovah as one day, and we look at history from jehovah's point of view, we should realize that adam was created six days ago and jehovah made immediate plans to restore what he had lost for his offspring.

raven101

Not that I believe any of this stuff but for the sake of argument;

Yeah, imagine that he's really fast isn't he?

Unfortunately time is not the same for his creation (as he well knows because he set the time frame and the perspective for all), so while some of those born in the most unfortunate circumstances live what seems to be an eternity of agony (you know, for example the little boy who at 8 or so was found bound and twisted into a monstrous deformed position in his parents basement where he had been tortured to a horrific and unimaginable extent every breathing moment of his existence (( thats a loooooong f'ing 8 years I'll bet!)) ) that was but a moment for jehovah!

I'm sure glad he was spared the prolonged horror of it!

As for the boy, well I'm sure after going through all that he'll appreciate the 'new system' all the more!

And thats what it's all about after all, appreciation. Right?

Unless of course some other religion, or heaven forbid a worldly life should be his choice, then he's going to have to die in Armageddon huh?

"No!" I'll bet they (witnesses) argue, "surely after going through something like that he can't really be held that accountable for falling for this or that lifestyle or doctrine!"

Oh really?

Well if that holds true for him then surely it does for all, because we are all logical products of our environment.

Its all relative.

An extremely sensitive soul for example, may be just as injured from a callous or neglectful upbringing as a tougher child would be from more direct abuse.

With the possible exception of extremely 'evil' acts by humans we cannot logically be held accountable.

Only one ineperienced of pain and travail, one who could stand above and find justification in pain which is not his own, one who could not only do this, but be the very origin of that pain, could be held accountable.

Hmmm.... I wonder who that could be?

Raven101

13

Anybody familiar with Tarot?

by raven101 in

.

once upon a time i thought it was quite demonic, i eventually ended up making a living at it for a time.. jung did some research in the field.. does anyone else have experience with the cards?.

raven101

Moridin, a little of all three. I knew a woman who had been reading since she was a child (her grandmother taught her), she told me she just shuffles the cards. She doesn't even look at them.

Interesting huh?

It has occured to me more than once that if ones eyes were open perhaps they could 'read' anything.

Narci, they certainly can, tho I I believe they reflect the most PROBABLE future, assuming no change (either through intent or circumstance) is made.

Why tho, would you assume 'someone' was 'behind' it?

What makes you think the universe works in any respect like you have been told it does?

What if the future was the past, what if all times exist simultaneously, what if history just endlessly repeats itself like a circle, what if, what if, what if.

Did you know one physics theory holds that everytime there is a choice, or more than one possibility regarding ANYTHING, that every event in fact does occur? Physicists who hold to this theory believe each possibility spins off into parallel reality.

Observation should tell you that time indeed is relative.

I try not to assume anything anymore, I'm pretty sure 'reality' is like nothing we have conceived of.

Raven101

13

Anybody familiar with Tarot?

by raven101 in

.

once upon a time i thought it was quite demonic, i eventually ended up making a living at it for a time.. jung did some research in the field.. does anyone else have experience with the cards?.

raven101

Moridin,

Are those decks?

I'm not familiar with either, tho they sound neat.

I use Alestair Crowley (I keep all three magicians in the deck).

For reference . . . Tarot Plain and Simple by Anthony Louis and for IN DEPTH with reference to Qabalah and mytholgy as well as astrology The Qabalistic Tarot by Robert Wang PHD

As I did it for a (sporadic) living for a while I did ALOT of readings.

You have been doing a considerable amount.

Very interesting isn't it? I just glance occasionally myself anymore, don't do it for a living anymore. In school, part time run of the mill work. You know.

Raven101