Click here for a scan of the 1969 Awake! which I referenced in my post above.
The excerpt quoted above is the first two full paragraphs on the page on the right.
Thanks to Paul Grundy at jwfacts.com for providing this!
Posts by jp1692
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23what as your first jolt that started your wake up process?
by yourmomma inyou know when you are in a deep sleep and something happens that may put you on a different level of sleeping, not as deep.
anyway, then i thought, 90 minutes for lunch?
so, there is a group waiting to cross the street.
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jp1692
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23
what as your first jolt that started your wake up process?
by yourmomma inyou know when you are in a deep sleep and something happens that may put you on a different level of sleeping, not as deep.
anyway, then i thought, 90 minutes for lunch?
so, there is a group waiting to cross the street.
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jp1692
About sixteen or seventeen years ago, my now-ex-wife that was raised as a JW told me this:
"If you are a young person, you also need to face the fact that you will never grow old in this present system of things. Why not? Because all the evidence in fulfillment of Bible prophecy indicates that this corrupt system is due to end in a few years. . . .
Therefore, as a young person, you will never fulfill any career that this system offers. If you are in high school and thinking about a college education, it means at least four, perhaps even six or eight more years to graduate into a specialized career. But where will this system of things be by that time? It will be well on the way toward its finish, if not actually gone!" - Awake! 1969 May 22 p.15
She is still in the cult. I'm out.
She was 10 years old when she first read that. She just turned 59. Both of her JW parents are dead. Gone.
There is one thing about that quote from the Awake! that is true. She never did "fulfill any career that this system offers." She spent her entire life working in low-paying, unskilled jobs. She still does. No savings. No retirement. No plan.
As I was leaving the cult I returned to college and earned a teaching credential. After leaving the cult I went on to obtain a Master's degree in education. As a result, I have a great career that I love and am well-compensated with full benefits--all things I never had when I was in the cult.
My only regret is that I wish I'd left the cult sooner (or never even joined) and earned my degrees sooner. But at least I did both.
She is still waiting for "soon." My soon has come and I'm enjoying every minute of it!
Ironic. No?
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56
Spiritual "Protection" - a Menace on Psychological Development
by Wake Me Up Before You Jo-Ho innot quite a week ago, @lost in the fog created a thread entitled: do you have this illness?.
https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5187824140681216/do-you-have-this-illness.
in my year of being on this forum, i have browsed many a disillusioned thread of ex-jehovah’s witnesses expressing similar symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder when detailing their awakening - my own story included.
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jp1692
Wake-me,
Thank you for starting this very thoughtfully written thread on such an important topic, one which is really relevant for us that have left the cult. Really, anyone that has left any cult will likely go through a similar process.
The trauma of realizing that our entire belief system was a fraud is profound and can lead to a total psychological break. Then -- just when we are at our weakest and need support the most -- we are also usually abandoned by everyone we love.
The betrayal is profound. It is deep.
The mental, emotional and psychological damage can be long-lasting. Many, maybe even most, of us fail to seek appropriate help from mental health professionals, usually due to the indoctrinated fear of talking to them. (The cult's effects are strong and pernicious.)
I completely agree with you that, as part of our healing process, we need to develop our critical thinking abilities.
This is something which I have given much thought to and devoted a great deal of time to researching. Coincidentally, I wrote about this very subject just a couple of days ago in another thread here and again here.
People often talk about "critical thinking skills" as if they were a single set of tools that one can acquire, learn how to use and then apply universally to any and all situations. Unfortunately that is not the case and it is important that we understand and accept that if we are to be able to learn how to think critically.
Thinking critically is really a way of thinking -- a mindset or an approach to how we attempt to understand things and solve problems. It is NOT simply a set of skills such as learning to identify logical fallacies.
The particular skills or techniques we learn and employ are almost always content or subject specific. What that means is that the kind of thinking we learn to use in one area (such as chemistry or geometry) is not readily transferable to other areas (such as historical analysis or argumentation). Learning to balance an equation for the combustion of methane will NOT help you identify logical fallacies in rhetorical discourse.
There are certain specific skills that will help us learn to untangle the knots the bound us in the cult indoctrination. Some have already touched on a few of these such as learning to recognize logical fallacies and other rhetorical methods of propaganda and manipulation. We can and should learn these and learn them well.
We should also learn to develop our confidence. For us that have left a cult, simply learning to ask questions -- good, well-thought out and clearly formulated questions -- is a big and important step.
In your OP you wrote that we "have been groomed to possess inherently lazy thinking abilities." I would respectfully disagree and say it's actually much worse than that: we were actively discouraged from thinking. How many time were we told to "avoid independent thinking"? I know I lost count decades ago.
Here's a typical quote from the first WT that came up in a Google search:
In modern times, a very small number among God’s people have become disgruntled with some aspect of Christian teaching and have murmured against the earthly part of Jehovah’s organization. Why does this happen? Such murmuring is often caused by a lack of understanding of God’s way of doing things. The Creator progressively reveals the truth to his people. Hence, our understanding of the Scriptures is bound to be refined from time to time. The vast majority of Jehovah’s people rejoice over such refinements. A few become “righteous overmuch” and resent the changes. (Ecclesiastes 7:16) Pride may play a role, and some fall into the trap of independent thinking. Whatever the reason, such murmuring is hazardous, since it can draw us back into the world and its ways. - [Emphasis added] -(Watchtower, July 15, 2006, pp. 19-23)
You were much closer to the mark when you commented that our "Intellectual responsibility is frequently delegated" and our "thinking skills are outsourced." This is so true.
We need to reclaim our intellectual responsibilities and no longer let anyone else do our thinking for us. For many of us that can be a scary process. But it is something that we all can learn to do and learn to do well.
It takes time, it takes effort, but it can be done. In fact, it must be done if we are to fully recover from the trauma of being in a cult.
Thank you again for taking the time to write this thread and start this discussion. It has been a pleasure to see how much you have grown in the time you've participated in this forum. When you first joined you were a weak and very scared little girl that was completely unsure of herself and didn't know what to do. You are now a strong, determined, and obviously very intelligent and confident young woman.
jp
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80
Are we losing our way a bit at JWN?
by nicolaou infirstly, i want to be crystal clear how grateful i am for jwn.
it's been my place of support for over seventeen years and it's the first online space i direct anyone to if they are taking steps out of the cult.
i am not bashing jwn - i love this place and appreciate the hard work and expense simon puts in to keep it going.
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jp1692
OTWO: I just wish so many can not make it so personal in attacking differing views. ... I don't ever think I should belittle the person. Calling people stupid never helps.
^^^ THIS ^^^
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Cults in our Midst
by Lee Elder inthis is related to a comment i made in a previous thread.
cults exist in many diverse parts of society.
this includes politics.
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jp1692
BOC: the one thing that all full-blown cults have in common is family/friends shunning a person just because they believe something different or walk away from the cult.
It’s anecdotal, but I personally know dozens of people that have told me they have been cut-off, unfriended and otherwise shunned on social-media and in the real world because of different political beliefs. That is, by definition, cultish behavior.
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Cults in our Midst
by Lee Elder inthis is related to a comment i made in a previous thread.
cults exist in many diverse parts of society.
this includes politics.
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jp1692
Intolerance of individual expressions of differences as well as commonalities
Anyone that doesn’t see how rampant this particular kind of cultish behavior has become on this forum since Trump was elected is almost certainly guilty of it!
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Sarah Huckabee Sanders Kicked Out Of Restaurant For Supporting Trump
by minimus ini think it’s ridiculous to kick people and families out of a restaurant because of politics.
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jp1692
Minimum: The bakery did not do the cake because of religious convictions not political convictions
And the significance of that distinction is what?
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hall crash
by intrigue169 ini live in the des moines iowa area , i would be interested in doing a kingdom hall crash after watching some on youtube, i would love to do that with a group of people.
i haven't meet any other ex jw around here.
i was never baptized, i always knew i could never live up to jehovah's standard so i never did even consider baptizing.
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jp1692
Don’t. Just don’t!
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37
Help: Anyone identify Gary Breaux's ring?
by Fay Dehr in.
can anyone identify this ring?
(ideally, a link to a page on the internet with photo and description).
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jp1692
Check out this old thread:
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118
Do You Think President Trump Is Doing a Good Job?
by minimus ini think he is.
if you don’t want to put reasons for your yes or no, it’s ok. .
your vote,please?
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jp1692
Donald J. Trump:
- President of the United States of America and Leader of the Free World - Worst job ever. A total disgrace.
- Wannabe Dictator of the Divided States of America and Vladimir Putin’s Little Bitch - It’s a work-in-progress but still to early to call it. Orbán Viktor currently has the lead imho.