Posts by Alligator Wisdom

Like you, I had trouble fathoming the thought of my own non-existence......especially in the wake of being raised as a JW with the bright and wonderful prospect of never ever growing old and dying. Now, I'm rapidly approaching 50 years of age.

Years ago I saved this piece from a JWN poster.

Alligator Wisdom (aka Brother NOT Exerting Vigorously)

DEATH

So you have a problem.

All problems are feelings.

In your case the feeling is one of a discrepancy between the way things are and the way you'd like them to be.

You'd like to be immortal and you realize you're mortal.

You imagine things about what that means.

What does death mean?

It means the absence of life.

Certainly if you're dead you won't be perturbed, as you'll not be.

So it isn't really the business of being dead that you find disturbing, but rather the contemplation of deadness in the here and now.

You can change the way you think about it without denying its eventuality.

Before you were born you were effectively non-existent.

Dead.

After you die it will be the same.

So you certainly don't fear the past, where you didn't exist, so why fear the future where you will not exist either?

Perhaps it's a sense of lost opportunity.

You could think of whether it is true that experiences bring gain.

Suppose they don't.

Suppose it's an illusion, that these various stimulations which existence provides will bring about a sense of "ahhh, that's better than not having these"

Perhaps you could examine the self.

Do you have a continuous self now?

Are you the same you that was the infant?

Are you the young man that you were when you were ten?

Or are both of these individuals dead, and you possess their memories.

Perhaps you are nothing but a series of snapshots and the "self" is just a series of these notes played in a certain sequence.

Visit the cemetary near you. Look at the stones, and the names.

See your own.

What's the difference between you above them and the decayed bodies below the surface.

Go for a walk along a highway.

See a recent carcass of an animal.

Go by and see it again and again until it's gone.

Know that will happen to the body your sensation of self for the moment resides in.

Look at the sky at night when you can see the stars.

Know that some of these have already burned out and what you see are visual echoes of dead stars.

Know that if you were a star and gave off light, perhaps someone far away would see you shine and think...But are they still alive...one day they will die.

Explore the ways others have dealt with death and dying.

Know that feelings are impermanent - both good and bad feelings. The worst of these estimated to pass in at most 3-4 months. The best of these fade too.

You remain you.

And then you die.

All the time.

Sometimes you notice, and sometimes not.

Death comes and flakes you away like a soap bar in the water.

The image fades through the soap.

Ask yourself if others are living.

Ask yourself if you want to know the truth of be content with a lie.

Jesus himself said in John 12:24 - "most truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains just one grain; but if it dies, it then bears much fruit. He that is fond of his soul destroys it..." in so saying this, he indicated among other things that the business of true living involves death.

Fighting a natural process is self destructive.

The answer to death is to embrace change and become something new, something more.

If you spend yourself in this way being true to whatever grain of "wheat" you happen to be, then when you die, there will be no loss - not for you or anyone else.

This universe isn't a bag with holes.

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.

17

Consequences of the cult? FEAR and PASSIVITY - anything else?

by BluePill2 in

jw
friends

depending how long you where a member or if you where a born in, the watchtower leaves certain marks or traces in your mind that you only notice after leaving them for good.. i think this is similar to a big river, with a high level of water that covers the hidden rocks and cliffs.

once you start lowering the water level, all these rocks come to the surface and suddenly that river is difficult to navigate.. like that river, our minds are flooded with false hope for the future, a naive expectation to have jehovah sort things out for you and lots of fake, conditional love and warmth.

all these things hide the fact that the same organization also put some heavy rocks into your mind called fear and passivity.

Alligator Wisdom

You are not alone in feeling such.

But the fact that you recognize it will do wonders in your recovery. You said that you "noticed" it everyday. Thus, you are no longer a slave, but have the opportunity to control your life and much of its outcome.

Alligator Wisdom (aka Brother NOT Exerting Vigorously)

7

Is this Love?

by LucidChimp in

.

this made me do a happy.. .

2:03

Alligator Wisdom

Bravo!

Alligator Wisdom (aka Brother NOT Exerting Vigorously)

26

"Is my life now more meaningful, and am I happier?"

by Julia Orwell in

jw
friends

so the question is posed in this week's watchtower study at our former cult's houses of indoctrination.

i should like to answer it, and i should like to hear your answers too.. the question is in two parts, and i shall address each one in turn.. q. is my life more meaningful?.

my life is more meaningful.

Alligator Wisdom

Hip-Hip-Hooray!

Great to hear some real "good news".

Alligator Wisdom (aka Brother NOT Exerting Vigorously)

5

Facebook Friend

by Pete Zahut in

mrs. zahut made facebook contact with a friend she grew up with.

the friend is from a large jw family.

so far she's only sent the following brief message.. " ....no one in our family are jw.

Alligator Wisdom

My JW mom raised four children as JWs.

Me (inactive).

My three siblings never got baptized.

Alligator Wisdom (aka Brother NOT Exerting Vigorously)

40

New here, just wanted to say "Hello"

by Goldiver in

hello all, it is nice to have a forum for former jw's and see i wasn't the only one out there having serious doubts.

my parents got into it when i was about 4 years old.

my family was part of the granville ny congregation.. my dad in time became an elder.

Alligator Wisdom

Glad you are here!

Alligator Wisdom (aka Brother NOT Exerting Vigorously)

31

Where else is there to go?

by snare&racket in

jw
friends

when i left the jw's, close friends and some elders discussed my desicion with me,without fail they all concluded the same thing.... "but where else is there to go?!".

at the time, the question just confused me, i could not see why it confused me or the very telling nature of such a comment.

i never thought that once.. firstly, this indicates that many jw's remain jw's simply because of this tunnel vision perspective... everything in their periphery is valueless, but the wt on which they focus is everthing.

Alligator Wisdom

BTTT

snare&racket, your OP is exactly what I needed to read. An excellent dissection of the topic.

Recenty I was asked the same "where" question by a well acquainted brother. I told him that it's actually "who".

He responded, "Basically where and who are the same".

I'm saving this thread because of all of the great responses and thoughts.

Alligator Wisdom (aka Brother NOT Exerting Vigorously)

17

John 14:14

by InChristAlone in

john 14:14, in most translations, says something to the effect of, "if you ask me anything in my name, i will do it.

" (my emphasis on "me") the kjv (and relative translations) and the nwt do not have "me" in it.

most of the translations that keep the word were based on the westcott and hort which has the greek "me", however the kjv doesn't because it was based on the textus receptus which does not have the greek "me".

Alligator Wisdom

The footnote for John 14:14 in the large reference NWT notes that Jesus said to ask him anything in his name. I used this on several brothers in the congregation to suppport the fact that Jesus can be spoken to on a one to one basis. They couldn't refute this.

Alligator Wisdom (aka Brother NOT Exerting Vigorously)