Posts by Victor

5

What is Truth?

by Victor_E in

jw
friends

since leaving the tower some seven years ago i took a leap building my wings of faith on the way down.

i have enjoyed some of your posts on faith, truth, and lifes purpose yada yada yada.

i have concluded that the truth about my existence lies somewhere in between being a hybrid human/alien product to being a son of god with a meaningful purpose.

Since leaving the Tower some seven years ago I took a leap building my wings of faith on the way down. I have enjoyed some of your posts on faith, truth, and life’s purpose yada yada yada. I have concluded that the truth about my existence lies somewhere in between being a hybrid human/alien product to being a Son of God with a meaningful purpose. The paradox of this issue is that I could make a valid case for any Cartesian point I choose to arrive at in this spectrum. I am curious to hear about your personal truths to the following questions:

1. How do you explain your existence and the afterlife?
2. What are the biggest lessons in your life you have had to learn?
3. What criteria do you use to accept a personal truth?
4. What past truths did you have to revise substituting them with what?
5. What gives you the greatest satisfaction since leaving the Tower?
6. If you summed up your life guiding principles you want to pass on to your children what are these?

We should be ready to revise any belief, we should change a belief where there is compelling reason to change it, and we should not change a belief wantonly without some good reason. The first point needs intellectual courage, the second, intellectual honesty, and the third, wise restraint. Do not believe anything but question only what is worth questioning.

Victor

8

Maturity, Cults, and JWs

by Amazing in

jw
friends

how cults trap us: the criteria to define cults is fairly well established.

i think "lifton" did the best job.

however, there is one feature that none of the cult expose' literature seems to deal with - maturity.

Victor_E

:Power of Immaturity: I believe that somehow Cults have tapped into the human psyche at that "transitional place" where we can revert to childhood,
What you describe is a form of age regression that is accessed through emotional states. What JWs and other cults do is to keep you from using critical thinking, they install mental barriers through many presuppositions. Those orders go something like this, “We must avoid independent thinking like Kora”. That post hypnotic command has just put a lock on your mind not to have any original thoughts of your own. Towards the end of my attendance at the kh I started to write out all the commands that is the regular linguistic diet of rank and file dubs. What I noticed was very redundant language patterns, and these were parroted very much like mantras.
:and they exploit that to the extent that if we are not aware or careful, we can actually become children again in a sense ...
Become children no, have magical thinking and lack of whole brain thinking yes.
:and if we are not aware or do not have something jar us emotionally out of this, we can remain emotional victims of the Maturity Police, otherwise known as the Governing Body and their goons.
You can have mental or emotional jarring both lead to the same place, the questioning of the whole power structure over your freedom. Good post I concur with many of your conclusions.
Victor
He that does not know that he does not know, shun him for he is a fool
He that knows but is not knowing, wake him up because he is asleep.
He that knows that he does not know, teach him.
He that knows that he knows, follow him (learn from him). Arabic Proverb

12

Daily Text - Eccl. 3:13

by YoYoMama in

jw
friends

eccl.

3:13 "every man should eat and indeed drink and see good for all his hard work.

it is the gift of god.".

Victor_E

Yo yo are you here to preach and count time?

21

Rusell and Free Masons

by Victor_E in

jw
friends

this is a serious inquiry of the facts of rusell and free masory.

while i have read posts on here and other boards i would like to know more facts on this subject.

to date this is what i know and i would appreciate knowing more.. 1. rusell often spoke in free mason temples.

Victor_E

This is a serious inquiry of the facts of Rusell and Free Masory. While I have read posts on here and other boards I would like to know more facts on this subject. To date this is what I know and I would appreciate knowing more.

1. Rusell often spoke in Free Mason temples
2. Rusell's grave stone has emblems of Masonry
3. Early Watchtower publications used emblems used by Masons

Thanks in advance

4

So This is X-Mas

by Victor_E in

jw
friends

my call of duty.

so this is xmas.

back in my jw days i would answer, i bought and distributed many books and magazines to worldly people who needed conversion.

Victor_E

MY CALL OF DUTY
So this is Xmas
And what have you done?

Back in my JW days I would answer, “I bought and distributed many books and magazines to worldly people who needed conversion”. This year I feel a great deal of satisfaction in knowing that through my efforts, some people chose to live instead of ending their lives prematurely due to their painful existence.

Another year over
And a new one just begun
And so this is Xmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear ones
The old and the young

Having fun is a new concept for me, but one I totally embrace with my whole being. I think back to exotic places I visited this year and the adventures taking in the local cultures. Life is meant to be enjoyed instead of viewing it through a dark lens imposed upon me by the Watchtower. This lens censured most fun unless it was one of those picture perfect Watchtower scenes of meeting with other JWs talking about JW activities and “deep truths”.

A very merry Xmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear

Back in my JW days I remember singing this song from my heart, only to be criticized by my JW wife. Even then my soul knew that I was a prisoner of old WASP men, from Brooklyn who dictated my emotional states. How ironic that what I feared was just an illusion in my mind. Gone are the fears of death at Armageddon, persecution by Satan, approval of other JWs, etc, etc.

And so this is Xmas
For weak and for strong
For rich and the poor ones
The world is so wrong

I guess what I was really singing was, my world is so wrong. As I think back to my past world I feel for all those depressed people wanting some amelioration to their mere existence.

And so happy Xmas
For black and for white
For yellow and red ones
Let's stop all the fights

Fighting was programmed into me as a way of life. Little did I know that those holy conflicts were just a scheme to divide us from society and keep us within the Watchtower walls. All I saw was black or white, we or they, Satan or God, good or evil, worldly or theocratic and on and on.

A very merry Xmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear

Back in my JW life every New Year only made me realize the quiet desperation I lived in. In my mind I wanted to believe we were one year closer to the end, but in my heart I knew better. All the old JWs who told me not to go to college because the end was so near were dying off, never seeing their paradise. My only reality was I being an unskilled blue-collar worker, wanting to have a higher quality of life but unable to finance it with my small paycheck.

And so this is Xmas
And what have we done?
Another year over
And a new one just begun

I am grateful to live another year free to dream and work hard to live that dream with eyes open. It has been a long and difficult journey but I would not have it any other way. As a famous Mexican revolutionary said, “I would rather die on my feet as a free man than live in slavery on my knees”.

And so happy Xmas
We hope you have fun
The near and the dear ones
The old and the young

Whoever you are reading my words, have fun it’s a God given right no one can take from you but you. Live this day with joy and have fun, if you do this you will have a happy yesterday, as you look forward to a happy tomorrow.

A very merry Xmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear

Some fears are healthy because they keep us from taking foolish risks. As you grow in your own evolution your programmed paranoia will lessen with time as you use your God given common senses.

War is over now

War for the Watchtower is escalating with the advent of the internet. The fighting field is leveled now with the power of instant information. Now is the time to march forward my brothers in arms.

Victor Escalante
“All men are afraid in battle. The coward is the one who lets his fear overcome his sense of duty. Duty is the essence of manhood”.
George Patton

4

MY STORY Chapter 1

by Victor_E in

jw
friends

chapter 1.. the year is 1972 and it appears vietnam will soon be a closed chapter for this country and for me the start of one that will define my destiny in life.

my best friend john and i are freshmen in high school and we take great joy in debating religion.

he is a newly baptized jw and i am a renegade catholic.

Victor_E

Chapter 1.
The year is 1972 and it appears Vietnam will soon be a closed chapter for this country and for me the start of one that will define my destiny in life. My best friend John and I are freshmen in high school and we take great joy in debating religion. He is a newly baptized JW and I am a renegade Catholic. John is impressed that I know more about Biblical prophecy than he, so he brings his friends Leo and his older brother Benny to my house to have open Bible discussions. These are sincere kind and caring people that it’s such a pleasure to be around. In time I am convinced the JWs have absolute truth, after all how can I argue against their iron clad proofs of they being the only neutral martyrs while all other religions are spiritual political prostitutes. I am idealistic and somewhat radical needing a cause to fight for and the JWs fit the bill. I take great pride in joining and defending these truth seekers; I am one of those new converts you should lock up.

Moral of the story: Those you oppose today will be those you are a part of twenty years from now.

Twenty years later I wrote this:
The Wall That Heals

I took off for the weekend last month
just to try & recall the whole year
all of the faces & all of the places
just wonderin where it all disappeared

I took off this am to see THE TRAVELING VIETNAM VETERANS MEMORIAL.
A half scale replica of the wall in Wash DC engraved with 58, 202 names of men and women all casualties of Viet Nam. Something was calling to me yesterday to go observe and photograph the catharsis of painful emotions of all those directly affected by the loss of loved ones. The wall is on a journey across America with the stated purpose of their brochure.

" Speaking, of the loss of men and women, --- our parents, children, neighbors, and friends. The VVM has helped veterans from WWI to Desert Storm find healing and a powerful connection with the common military experience. Non veterans, from school children to parents and grandparents, find in the Wall a deeper appreciation for their sacrifice, service, and courage, and draw from the experience lessons for today's life and life in the future."

The Wall That Heals offers another powerful gift to the nation: and opportunity for the souls enshrined on the Memorial to journey back to the places they called home, to exist among friends and family once more not in the monumental city, but in the comfort and place of familiar surroundings."

As I loaded my Minolta with film and mounted the 600mm mirror lens I caught through my peripheral vision a couple that was sitting in a park bench somber and introspective. I positioned myself and started shooting, first was an older Mexican couple accompanied by a vet that was assisting them find a name, probably their son. Next I saw an old man that was all alone crying as he ran his fingers over a name, I suspect his son. Then came a long haired vet dressed in his soldier greens, I zoomed in to catch his facial expression and I saw was a stoic nonemotional expression, I thought to myself he was probably a sarge or a captain. If only I could hear what these people are thinking or feeling, what stories they would tell.

It's these changes in latitudes
Nothing remains quite the same
with all of my running & all of my cunning
If I wasn't crazy I would go insane

As I continued to observe now through my wide angle lens, I saw all the diversity of people that was now becoming a larger crowd. My mosaic mind now took off into a different latitude, I wondered of all the casualties of the Watchtower. First I saw my lovely wife she is a prisoner of the Watchtower (POW) by her own choosing. I wish I could make a WALL THAT HEALS to take to every town and village around the world for former JWs to be instantly healed from the pain and suffering from all the atrocities they experienced as casualties of the Watchtower.

If it suddenly ended tomorrow
I could somehow adjust to the fall
Good times & riches and son of a bitches
I've seen more than I can recall

I now went up close to the wall, there were flowers, a full bottle of vodka, pictures, and letters all lying at the foot of the wall. One little old lady asked me if I could help her find a name, I asked her if it was her son, she responded that it was a friend of hers. Hmmmmm I wondered ..... if only these engraved names could speak the stories they would tell.

Many I'm sure would say that God damned McNamara and Johnson sent us to our death. I wonder what casualties of the Watchtower would say?

Oh but yesterdays are over my shoulder
So I can't look back for too long
There's just too much to see waiting in front of me
And I don't think that I can go wrong

How true, for many of these people this is the last sentence to finish a chapter in their lives. As I look back at this year it also represents a closed chapter in my life. Back in January I would have never expected to be here physically and metaphorically. This is the second most painful year of my life, but yesterdays are over my shoulder. I can look back at the painful experiences as falls I took learning to ride the bicycle of life. I know it happened but there is no pain in the memory. God if feels so good to be a freeman from the slavery of an ideal gone bad!!! ......... I think about all the others that have not progressed beyond the storyline of being Watchtower victims.

About this time the lady that I saw when I got here approaches me and asks me if I am a freelance photographer. I respond in the affirmative. She tells me her husband is a vet that is still suffering from the aftermath of his experience. I can see his physiology saying " I am deeply hurt but I just want to be left alone,............... no one can understand". I wish I could just reach out to him and tell him that there is hope for him and that he can reconstruct his life so he can have a higher quality of life.

With these changes in latitudes
Changes in attitudes nothing remains quite the same
with all of our running & all of our cunning
If we couldn't laugh we would all go insane
If we couldn't laugh we would all go insane
If we weren't all crazy, we would go insane

How true, life is crazy if you try to make rational sense out of it. I think back to how simple life used to be for me being a JW, I had all these rapid fire answers to any question. I loved to flex my spiritual muscle with people at the doors, what an idiot I must have appeared to the householders. If my friends could see me now what would they say. I think they would say I had lost my mind. Thank God I did lose my mind that was a POW and now I can think freely and speak freely without fear of being reprimanded by the spiritual MP.
Through these fields of destruction
Baptisms of fire
I've watched all your suffering
As the battles raged higher
And though they did hurt me so bad
In the fear and alarm
You did not desert me
My brothers in arms

Now the sun's gone to hell
And the moon's riding high
Let me bid you farewell
Every man has to die
But it's written in the starlight
And every line on your palm
We're fools to make war
On our brother in arms

I start to put away my cameras and lenses. I take one final look at all these people that came together one Sunday morning to remember their loved ones, and to experience the Wall that Heals.

Victor Escalante

"A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices."
William James

8

SPIRITUAL INCOMPETENCE

by Victor_E in

jw
friends

the founders of america were great men and women who fled religious intolerance from the motherlands to give birth to a new nation where religious freedom would be guaranteed by law.

these laws have become a safe heaven for cults and all kinds of religious scams who hide behind the laws that make churches immune from prosecution.

russell and company found that the laws of the land allowed him to set up his religion to be able to market his pyramidology beliefs through literature sales.

Victor_E

Hi Gary,
It's an honor to have you respond to my post. I am also a long time fan of your writing. Thanks for your kind words.
Vic

8

SPIRITUAL INCOMPETENCE

by Victor_E in

jw
friends

the founders of america were great men and women who fled religious intolerance from the motherlands to give birth to a new nation where religious freedom would be guaranteed by law.

these laws have become a safe heaven for cults and all kinds of religious scams who hide behind the laws that make churches immune from prosecution.

russell and company found that the laws of the land allowed him to set up his religion to be able to market his pyramidology beliefs through literature sales.

Victor_E

The founders of America were great men and women who fled religious intolerance from the motherlands to give birth to a new nation where religious freedom would be guaranteed by law. These laws have become a safe heaven for cults and all kinds of religious scams who hide behind the laws that make churches immune from prosecution.

Russell and company found that the laws of the land allowed him to set up his religion to be able to market his pyramidology beliefs through literature sales. Today the Watchtower is nothing more than a publishing corporation disguised as a religion. Take away the status of a religion and this printing company would be hard hit with all kinds of litigation for the great damage it has caused to millions of people and their extended families.

Elders are nothing more than general managers of the local “company” which is what the congregations used to be called. The only spiritual training they have had is all the policies and procedures of this company. That is not to say the Tower is devoid of spiritual people, they were already spiritual before joining the Tower and they remain spiritual after their stint in the Tower.

If you look closely you will find spiritual incompetence at every level of this publishing company, folks this is by design. The Tower was never meant to be this great compassionate organization that would spend its energies and resources to help its members in need. I drive past a church every day on my way to my office that advertises AA meetings there for the convenience of its parishioners and the general public. Tell me when would this great publishing company allow such an act in one of their properties? When JWs have emotional, relational, financial and psychological problems where can they go and what are they to do? The company says through their managers, “you need to sell more and work harder.”

You may put in years and years of countless time and energies into this company and if one day you disagree with any of it’s policies, your ass is grass. Does the Tower have good employees? Yes. Does IBM have good employees? Yes. In America, in the corporate world, companies pay out big money for suits lost from wrongful termination. The Tower has a license to terminate you at will with no reason other than they dislike you.

If this post has a moral you may have to give it your own.

“ All men must die, only a few really live.” Brave heart

37

10 REASONS WHY JWS STAY IN THE TOWER

by Victor_E in

jw
friends

reason 1. jws use a cultic language that keeps them in a constant state of social hypnosis.

transformational grammar teaches that our language directly affects our subjective experience.

in working with some former jws i had to confiscate certain words and have them create substitutes for something that was more neutral.

Victor_E

Reason 1
JWs use a cultic language that keeps them in a constant state of social hypnosis. Transformational grammar teaches that our language directly affects our subjective experience. In working with some former JWs I had to confiscate certain words and have them create substitutes for something that was more neutral. Generalized words lead to generalized perceptions of reality, which leads to fuzzy or gummy thinking. Words and phrases like; the truth, the brothers and sisters, the spiritual paradise, the encouragement, etc, perpetuate certain emotional states thus skewing the present ongoing current time experience. Their words and phrases are like mantras that they repeat over and over to create the illusion of safety and comfort.

Reason 2
Behind every flawed choice there is a positive intention and oftentimes a secondary gain. Why does the battered woman stay in an abusive relationship? Due to all the benefits she gets like companionship, material sustenance, scarce emotional support, etc. The pain of staying is great but the pain of leaving is greater due to the loss of all the benefits she gets in the relationship, or so she thinks. JWs stay in out of fear of shunning, fear of stepping out of the known circle of comfort, fear of being nobodies outside of the tower, fear of having no friends, etc, etc.

Reason 3
No real faith in finding another faith that is based on absolute truth. This type of mentality is rooted in deeply held beliefs programmed into the JW. This all or nothing thinking does not permit the JW to be responsible for their own salvation or personal path they must take in life. We who have spent years and much time, energies and resources have proven to ourselves that JW theology is nothing more than plagiarized beliefs of other apocalyptic movements. The average JW does not want to be confused with the facts.

Reason 4
Some people want to stay in their comfort zone insulating themselves from the stressors and challenges that come from freely questioning, growing, and evolving. Since we are motivated by two forces pain and pleasure, the aversion to pain outside the JW subculture becomes the preferred choice negating any potential necessary steps to construct a different tomorrow. It’s a form of conditioning much like a zoo animal that prefers to stay in the cage that he was transported in instead of venturing out into unknown territory.

Reason 5
Some people prefer to make others responsible for their living experience and choices. Not wanting to take responsibility for one’s own destiny absolves this type of person from any guilt or self-blame since they were simply following orders. What the person fails to realize is that the people making the choices do not have to suffer the consequences nor pay the price for their decisions. These people prefer to be told what to believe. Many of us would agree that the majority of JWs are followers of followers.

Reason 6
Most JWs rationalize, minimize, or justify the flaws inside of the organization. What they fail to realize is that they are using cliché circular reasoning phrases that were given to them by their taskmasters. Examples of this is; we have imperfect men who are appointed by holy spirit, we must wait on Jehovah to correct things, we are being tested by Jehovah, we are so close to the end, etc, etc.

Reason 7
Some people are too invested in their denials. Denial is a powerful mechanism that allows us to repress painful emotions. The impact on a person once they find out they slaved for a printing company most of their life with nothing to show for it can be devastating. Far better to pretend and act as if the Tower is the keeper of divine truth and believe that if they stay in sooner or later Armageddon is coming and they will be rewarded for their faithfulness.

Reason 8
JWs have been disconnected from their feelings; they rely heavily on logical circular and often times paradoxical thinking. Two examples of this are the end time theology, and the UN scandal, try and show a JW all the failed prophecies or the UN papers and they will do all kinds of creative mental gymnastics. They have quick rapid-fire answers to most complex problems; this is a form of pathological thinking. They in cold blood commit atrocities in shunning loved ones in the name of God. The majority of JWs have never listened to their heart or intuition. Instead they have opted to rely all their life on life guiding information from the Tower, never looking inward for insight about what is best for them. They have no concept of self since they don’t know the feeling that comes from having an inner alignment. A publishing company has created their identity of being a JW.

Reason 9
They will not read objective opposing literature to form their own conclusions and if they do, they negate it with beliefs programmed into them. I remember having two JW clients whom I loaned one of Ray’s books, one lady could only see according to her “bitter comments from an ingrate”, the other preferred to continue living in ignorant bliss. Mind you these were people seriously depressed people with all kinds of complaints against the local abusive elders.

Reason 10
JWs have been programmed with a pervasive fear that if they leave the Tower all kinds of bad things will happen to them. They have only heard worse case scenarios of people who left only to be swallowed by Satan and his world being forced to come back. JWs know few if any successful role models of former members.

20

Attending WT meetings/functions

by Lee Elder in

jw
friends

i've been inactive for over 4 years now but i'm still attached though - loosely.. i will occassionally attend a meeting or portion of an assembly or convention.. i get a mixed reception at these gatherings.

generally my experience has.

been that the larger the group, the more inclined i am to run into some who.

Victor_E

You said:
This might be an indication of a good time to approach JW family members or
friends concerning the truth about "the truth", if that is something you feel
you should do.
People will people now and a hundred years after we are all long gone. My take on this is that unless a person is seeking and openly searching to end their JW misery it is an act of futility to detower a JW. We outsiders have nothing to offer JWs as a viable substitute for their logical and regimented life style. My perspective on this issue is from third position, to each his own live and let live. It is far better to just love and unconditionally tolerate the people while separating their dogma that has been programmed by mama.

“Those that try to set themselves up as keepers of absolute truth are shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.” A Einstein

Victor_E

Posts by Victor_E