Comments?Apparently when someone is hearing voices either through mental illness or it can be because of a fault with their ears, the auditory part of the brain lights up during a brain scan showing that their brain is reacting as though they are actually hearing, but they're not. So what would your experiment prove?
Personally, I would like to see an experiment that scans the brain while the person is making a factual statement: 'I believe my dog is alive'; if there's a difference in brain activity or area of the brain activated when saying: "I believe Jesus is alive".
Xanthippe
JoinedPosts by Xanthippe
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59
How the human mind processes facts and faith differently
by EdenOne ini found this very interesting article by t. m. luhrmann in todays edition of the new york times (i've highlighted a few parts i 've found most interesting):.
it seems weird to deny them.. and yet a broad group of scholars is beginning to demonstrate that religious belief and factual belief are indeed different kinds of mental creatures.
people process evidence differently when they think with a factual mind-set rather than with a religious mind-set.
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Xanthippe
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How to be happy flopping whoppers part time while pioneering!
by life is to short ini was just thinking the other day why is there not service meeting part like my title says.
i mean that would really be helpful to those who totally believe the no collage thing.
since they do not want anyone to have any education why don't they at the very least try to help them to be happy living a life of poverty with service meetings parts, since everyone would be in poverty if they really listened to the fds.. like a part on how not to be upset when anther brother buys a new car parks it two blocks from the hall so as not to get door dings in it and rides all day in your car and does not give you a dime for gas.
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Xanthippe
Thank you for replying, Magnum. I know many of us slaved away and lived in poverty. It's good to hear from you. Not because I feel ashamed of my genuine belief because I don't know how I could have thought any other way with the information control form birth onward, but because I need to know there were people who thought like me, a purely human response you see. So thanks. Not everyone was a piousneer.
Faye, thank you! It's great to get some feedback. Yes I can understand you not wanting to hurt your parents. I didn't want to hurt my JW mother when I left. I remember her teling me people kept asking her why she was crying in the KH. Not emotional blackmail at all! Living authentically can be hard can't it?
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How to be happy flopping whoppers part time while pioneering!
by life is to short ini was just thinking the other day why is there not service meeting part like my title says.
i mean that would really be helpful to those who totally believe the no collage thing.
since they do not want anyone to have any education why don't they at the very least try to help them to be happy living a life of poverty with service meetings parts, since everyone would be in poverty if they really listened to the fds.. like a part on how not to be upset when anther brother buys a new car parks it two blocks from the hall so as not to get door dings in it and rides all day in your car and does not give you a dime for gas.
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Xanthippe
Yeah I know many believed it whole-souled like us Doc - that expression's a blast from the past isn't it? I am not so sure about there being no animosity about it on the board. Sadly the ones who make the most noise often want to say that people who worked hard were glory-seekers and hypocrites. Can't tell you how much I resent that. I have never sought glory in my life and I certainly never had any in the cult. Far from it!
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How to be happy flopping whoppers part time while pioneering!
by life is to short ini was just thinking the other day why is there not service meeting part like my title says.
i mean that would really be helpful to those who totally believe the no collage thing.
since they do not want anyone to have any education why don't they at the very least try to help them to be happy living a life of poverty with service meetings parts, since everyone would be in poverty if they really listened to the fds.. like a part on how not to be upset when anther brother buys a new car parks it two blocks from the hall so as not to get door dings in it and rides all day in your car and does not give you a dime for gas.
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Xanthippe
I know the answer of course but thinking about it now I realize that even the GB didn't want anyone to really follow their stupid rules. If everyone pioneered and had no kids, no money, etc where would the religion be. The GB are relying on the kids, of the kids who they told not to have kids to support them now.
I know what you mean. I pioneered ten years and looked at the other elders and their wives who had somehow found the time to have lots of children and buy a big house. I wondered how they could do it and not worry about all those people who would die at the big A if we didn't preach to them.My husband said at elder's meetings when he said things that showed he really believed it all and was sincere about the 'Truth' the other elders would look at him with pity as if to say, 'you poor fool you really believe all this don't you.'
So I know where you're coming from Life is too Short. Glad to know my husband and I were not the only ones who put our money where our mouth was. We had just enough time left to have one baby, so glad we had her!
It's funny I was not popular when I was in for pioneering, being a goody goody, whatever. Now I don't feel popular on this site for saying I really believed it and lived by my convictions. Seems more popular to say you didn't really believe it, thought pioneering was crap and hated all the pioneers. Hey ho! Such is life. Still glad I lived the way I believed. Think it got me out and saved my life.
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Graduating college May 14. Update on Getting my GED and going to college thread from 5 years ago.
by noni1974 inhttp://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/187163/getting-my-ged-can-go-college.
i started this topic 5 years ago letting everyone know i had decide to get my ged and go to college in hopes of getting an education so that i could have a career instead of just a job.
i wanted fulfillment and a future, not just another job that has no really future in it.
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Xanthippe
Fantastic news Noni, well done you!
:)
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Who REALLY believed in the idea of living forever on earth??
by stuckinarut2 inseriously.....even when you were 100% in "the truth", did you really believe in living forever?
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Xanthippe
An all powerful being who made the universe and all life can do anything, that's what I believed, until I stopped believing it. I don't mean to be rude but when people say they stayed in for decades and worked their ass off for something they didn't believe in, it baffles me. -
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Jury Service in the UK
by Nambo ini had always thought the powers that be knew i was a jw and so never called me up for jury service.. today however, i received a summons for jury service.. what is the jw's position on jury service?, what will happen to me when i refuse to swear an oath?.
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Xanthippe
My iPad is going crazy I can't edit. Let Clerk of the Court know straight away. Perfectly acceptable to not take a religious oath. -
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Jury Service in the UK
by Nambo ini had always thought the powers that be knew i was a jw and so never called me up for jury service.. today however, i received a summons for jury service.. what is the jw's position on jury service?, what will happen to me when i refuse to swear an oath?.
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Xanthippe
You can affirm rather than swearing a religious oath but need to tell the Clerk of the Court you want to do this.
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How do stop myself getting too Bitter?
by stuckinarut2 inyou know, i always maintained that during this fading process, and while learning ttatt, i would not let myself get "bitter twisted and angry".... but, in all honesty, if i examine myself, i have become quite bitter toward the org, toward the false friends and the gb.. i have become angry as i see the extent of damage i feel being raised in "the truth" has done.... i feel hurt towards the lost opportunities in life etc.... how do i not allow myself to get too swallowed up by such bitterness?.
i have always been a very happy, positive, selfless person.
i can put people at ease, i am someone people feel comfortable chatting to.
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Xanthippe
Stuck, I know how you feel, we all struggle with this. The way I cope is I think there are so many ways to screw up your life or have it screwed up for you by circumstances, not just being in a cult.
Being born to rubbish parents, being born in a war zone, being born into poverty in a developing country, being depressed because of circumstances in our life and trying drugs and becoming an addict or catching AIDS. What has happened to us is recoverable from. Given time and work. Or should I say we can survive it and live a happy life.
People are born into circumstance beyond their control, thinking globally and studying history has taught me this. Not everyone has a mind open enough to cope with this idea but from reading and liking many of your posts I think you do.
We could stay angry and bitter for the rest of our lives but if we do that they win. I refuse to let this cult win.
Take care of yourself xx
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Many years of abuse
by Still Totally ADD ini remember when i signed up on this site as totally add which was 5 years ago plus.
i had a horror story to tell about the abuses i went through as a child in this cult.
since then mentally i am much better.
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Xanthippe
I'm so glad you are doing much better Still Totally ADD. Well done for leaving a cult and getting yourself along the road to mental recovery. For myself, I had five years of clinical depression in the cult and even now odd days I hit rock bottom. But the length of time I stay down is becoming less and less, sometimes it's just half a day, sometimes just half an hour. We were all, at the very least, mentally abused by this cult and as you say some were sexually abused too. May we all keep on the road to recovery. Xx