An analogy I've used goes like this.
Here is an empty glass. That was me at age 12.
That glass can be filled all the way to the top with something.
Once the glass is filled, there isn't room for anything else.
My glass was kept filled by Watchtower with busy, busy work, meetings, field service, book studies, Bible studies, meetings, etc.
When I left, that glass was so full of WT thinking, ideas, morality, judgments, doctrines that there was still no room for anything else.
I walked around as a non-JW but--for all practical purposes--still a propaganda machine.
The ONLY WAY to change my beliefs, my processing, my attitude was to POUR OUT what was in that glass.
How?
I took a 3X5 card with me wherever I went each day. On the card was a simple vocabulary word which represented important IDEAS--but with correct definitions (to replace WT definitions.)
It took about 5 years and 5 X 365 terms to UN-brainwash myself.
Instead of plunging back into some "other" religion, I studied the art of reasoning as developed by civilizations through history.
Philosophy's purpose was to answer the question: What do we know and how can we know it?
I settled on Aristotle (the father of Logic) and worked my way through the developments of reasoning and the use of non-contradictory definitions.
I started from scratch reading basic Science facts and how those facts were discovered, tested, and determined.
Books I read?
Mortimer J. Adler's 10 Philosophical Mistakes was an eye-opening book. It discloses how little mistakes here and there damaged mankind's ability to find the proper methodology for discovery and knowledge.
I began reading about cults and how they were started, soon mutated and eventually endured: Mormons, Scientologists, Moonies, Hare Krishnas, each had similarities.
Then, mainstream religion was next.
Reading Karen Armstrong's books (The History of God, The Battle for God, the Great Transformation) on religion and god was an astounding education in itself.
Richard E. Friedman's Who Wrote the Bible was and is an enlightening book.
This led to a real deconstruction by "whistleblower" Bart Ehrman and his best-selling books: How Jesus Became God, Misquoting Jesus, God’s Problem, Jesus Interrupted and Forged.
What a journey! Richard Carrier was hoot!
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Had I grown up in the computer era and the Worldwide Web, I would like to think it would be impossible to convince me of Jehovah's Witness "Truth."
In fact, I don't know how it is possible today unless the people being converted aren't computer savvy or are simply intellectually dishonest and superstitious people.
I spent a couple of years watching debates on many subjects with such people as late, great Christopher Hitchens and--wow! It's not easy to be naive about religion after that.
I think most of us who leave the Jehovah's Witness cult behind go through necessary but time-wasting stages. It's impossible to avoid.
Problem:
We really begin by asking the wrong questions which lead to wrong answers and blind alleys.
"Who has the true religion?" That is the wrong question.
"What is the correct Bible interpretation?" That is the wrong question.
"How does man determine what is true?" That is the right question.
We can't skip finding out what Logic is (the art of non-contradictory description.)
We can't skip understanding Fallacies, Confirmation Bias, Propaganda and basic Science.
All the above interest me and I've spent considerable time in discovery, contemplation, and dialogue with others.
Note: personal debates are really counter-productive although I surely got into them with a real vengeance.
I say arguments are counter-productive because neither party in a debate is humble and trying to learn. (It is anger and ego tinged with revenge.)
The worst part of being a JW other than wasting your life is the time spent shutting out everything else: i.e. the art of living a happy life.
Loving your life really is the first Art one should master.
