Posts by Xander

26

Whats your opinion on the best way to step down??

by Leander in

jw
friends

i know a lot of you here were former pioneers, servants and elders.

how did you go about stepping down?

did you just not say anything, did you write a letter or call one of the elders?.

Xander

If it matters, try transferring to another nearby hall. Then, you can fade out pretty quickly there (attend maybe one meeting a week for a bit, then stop going).

The brothers at the new hall will think you were always borderline inactive, and not push it (they don't WANT to lose members, and if you aren't harming anyone else/spreading apostasy to their knowledge...)

The brothers in you old hall will just assume you are doing fine over there.

Seems to work pretty well.

6

Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney Seeks 9/11 probe.

by Spartacus in

jw
friends

congresswoman cynthia mckinney seeks probe into sept. 11 attacks.

by stephanie a. crockett, bet.com staff writer .

posted april 19, 2002 -- during a recent radio interview, rep. cynthia mckinney (d- ga.) implied last week that the bush administration might have known about the terrorist attacks sept. 11 and did nothing to stop them, the washington post reported.

Xander

That's it. I've had enough of this.

'The Rock' for President '04!

....Actually, why not? He can act better than Bush, and can't possibly be any less comfortable in diplomatic situations.

Plus, while not necessarily sounding educated, he at least sounds tough. Bush has neither attribute, so....

49

By the pricking of my thumbs....

by Xander in

...some ancient wisdom this way comes?

pulling over from another thread.... i'm curious how many have dabbled in witchcraft/spiritism after leaving the jws.

or, perhaps, before joining.. i'm curious what experiences have been had.

Xander

I've yet to be convinced... being of a scientific bent, the old repeatable experiment thang is major requisit for me to actually believe in something.

I don't think I'd go as far as needing a repeatable experiment. After all, presuming we know exactly how to manipulate whatever spirit/energy there is exactly how it needs to be would seem to be a little arrogant. After all, variations as tiny as they may seem to us in the method might have big effects elsewhere...

I think, though, that at least a very obvious, straightforward cause and effect would be nice. Over perhaps a couple events.

As mentioned above, I do have some limited experience with some things just outside what can be explained by conventional thought.

21

Find your IDEAL religion!

by Sirona in

so if you are not jw, perhaps you would like to know what religion is most in-line with your beliefs?.

heres a simple quiz:.

http://www.selectsmart.com/religion/ .

Xander

Seems like the same thing as the 'belief-o-matic' over at belief.net:

http://www.belief.net/story/76/story_7665_1.html

I posted a thread about that one earlier here:

http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/forum/thread.asp?id=22961&site=3

49

By the pricking of my thumbs....

by Xander in

...some ancient wisdom this way comes?

pulling over from another thread.... i'm curious how many have dabbled in witchcraft/spiritism after leaving the jws.

or, perhaps, before joining.. i'm curious what experiences have been had.

Xander

And I'll add another experience. Again, something as a JW I completely dismissed...

Back in 7th grade (woo-boy, long time ago), I ran into a guy in my music class. I can't describe how it felt - it's like when you run into a close friend after years apart, or a family member. They look different, but you know them. You know their name, you know what their hobbies are, their likes, dislikes, etc.

Anyway, that's what it was like. Like two old buddies, we caught up on our experiences, told some jokes, generally got along like best friends. He knew me. I knew him. And kept going for a week or so.

I don't remember what topic came up, but it occurred to me he was referring to an elementary school in another state than I went to. Then I started thinking about it, and realized...we had never met before. I mean, I KNEW him. I KNEW him, and he knew me just as well.

But, as we talked about it - we couldn't find ANYTHING in common with our past. We had really, REALLY never met - weren't even in the same state until recently. Certainly never met, became best friends, and seperated.

Of course, this was WAY too much for my JW-conditioned mind to accept - so I just proceeded assuming we had indeed both met, become best friends, seperated, then both completely forgot about it all. Anyway, at some point before baptism, I talked this over with the MS studying with me (father wasn't 'in the truth', so mom had a bro study with me [8>]), and he talked about it with the elders. They all agreed I should stop associating with this person (apparently, he must have been satanic and using demons to plant false feelings in my mind [8>][8>])

49

By the pricking of my thumbs....

by Xander in

...some ancient wisdom this way comes?

pulling over from another thread.... i'm curious how many have dabbled in witchcraft/spiritism after leaving the jws.

or, perhaps, before joining.. i'm curious what experiences have been had.

Xander

Cool. Well, I don't have much to share. All I really have is the deja vu thing. I've read a lot of explanations of why it happens - supposedly, it is part of your mind working very fast and processing information before the rest of your mind catches up - as it processes it again, you get the feeling of having experience it before.

Which is fine and good, and I kept telling myself that was what was happening whenever I had deja vu (the alternative, of course, was that I was possessed, which I found hard to accept when I was standing on a platform giving a talk).

In any case, the only thing that really made me suspicious of it was that, at times, I had that feeling, but could finish someone's sentence, for example. I mean, I KNEW what they were going to say - it really, REALLY felt like deja vu, but I dunno, faster somehow. Like instead of a momentary 'I've done this before' it's more of a 'I've done this before, and this is about to happen' and it does.

What's weird is that, several times, when the 'period' is fairly long (15-20 seconds or so), I can actually remember back to what I was doing when I first saw myself doing this stuff - usually a day or so earlier.

As you can imagine, for a witness, it freaked the hell out of me. I kept telling myself 'it's just your mind thinking fast', 'it's just your mind thinking fast' when it was obvious I knew things were happening that I couldn't POSSIBLY have known.

It's been many years since I last experienced something like that, where I live has changed, most of my possessions have changed, the people I hang with have changed. I'm very skeptical of such things now, but looking back, I can't help but wonder. Maybe....just maybe...

7

A message to JW's/x-JW's - who to trust?

by Dawn in

jw
friends

this post is for any of you out there who have questions but have been afriad to search for answers outside of your organization/religion (this applies to any "christian" religion - not just jw's).

as for the rest of you heathens - no response please (tee hee - just joshin' .

i have been df'd for many years but really had no desire to go back to the bible until about 2 years ago.

Xander

Terribly sorry bout that - checked your profile, and saw 'Julian' listed as your first name - the only Julian I know is a women, so I made an incorrect assumption.

49

By the pricking of my thumbs....

by Xander in

...some ancient wisdom this way comes?

pulling over from another thread.... i'm curious how many have dabbled in witchcraft/spiritism after leaving the jws.

or, perhaps, before joining.. i'm curious what experiences have been had.

Xander

Awesome, I think I've actually started a discussion on this topic! (About time, too!)

As mentioned in my profile, I'm pagan now. Definately, 100% pagan. I believe in the basic spirits of the universe/planets/organisms/etc, which is about all I can accept right now - being a rather skeptical person. It basically covers the bases enough to explain otherwise unexplainable things (like fate, karma, etc.) but is still pretty limited as far as a religion goes.

I guess I keep poking questions out because I want to know if I'm missing something else. I guess a lot of it comes from the individuality most pagans have with their path. I mean, I can learn about all major christian religions in an afternoon, since their doctrines are centralized. But, for pagans, each persons path is their own, and I'm curious what paths others are finding that I have not. Kind of see where I'm coming from?

seedy, you mention 'experiences with spirits'. Could you describe such encounters? How they happened? What transpired?

49

By the pricking of my thumbs....

by Xander in

...some ancient wisdom this way comes?

pulling over from another thread.... i'm curious how many have dabbled in witchcraft/spiritism after leaving the jws.

or, perhaps, before joining.. i'm curious what experiences have been had.

Xander

Well, not quite to specific questions yet, but...

Witches do not have a central 'messiah' figure, so proof of their faith must come from actual events/experiences.

By 'proof', I mean something you could show an outsider and go 'look, see, a truth'.

I'm curious what that is for you? (And, anyone else interested in answering). What about witchcraft made sense - what 'clicked', as it were? What experience made you think/realize 'hey, I've got something here'?

Curious as always...

46

Proof of the "historical" Jesus...

by simwitness in

been wondering about this lately.... what proof (outside the bible, of course) do we have for the "historical jesus"?.

in my earlier days (post jw to "born again christian") i remember reading that the one thing that differentiates christianity vs. "all the others" was that we had secular historical proof that there was a man that was called jesus, who died on a cross and was resurrected.

now i am wondering just what that proof is/was?

Xander

Sorry, my bad. Misread the intent of your post.

I'd argue, though, that if those articles represent the most compelling case that can be made (and they are actually better than many I've heard), then I can't see how anyone could still believe.

I mean, it's not like we don't have any kind of record about what when on in this part of the world during this period of time. We do, and someone running around raising the dead and starting a new religion surely would have gotten front page news SOMEWHERE.

Telling, too, is that the gospels - the ONE AND ONLY account of the life and ministry of Jesus - didn't even start being recorded until decades after he died - when many of the 'eyewitnesses' would be dead.