I coasted through the religion until my 30s before waking up when it finally became enough of an inconvenience to be a JW and I decided I ought to make sure it was the truth.
What were your conclusions Apognophos?
Dis-Member
JoinedPosts by Dis-Member
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14
Do as we say not as we do.. (or spiritual hypocrites to those in the trade.)
by Dis-Member inwhen i first started 'pioneering' at aged 19 i was encouraged by my so called spiritual leaders(elders) to do window cleaning.
which i did but could never make enough to support myself, so i had to take a second part time job which was also a cleaner at a primary school.
i was always broke and always poor.. what never really clicked with me until many years after leaving was that none of these so called elder spiritual guides did window cleaning or pioneered themselves.. in fact they did the very opposite and lived very full and rich lives.. one ran his own building firm and dealt with milt-million pound contracts, another had his own very successful double glazing business, another was some kind of mechanical engineer who worked for some big multi-national organisation, another was a chemical engineer, another owned and ran his own very busy printing firm.
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32
What is the wackiest or strangest teaching that Witnesses adhere to?
by stuckinarut2 ini guess there are many, but what would be the strangest teaching, or "wackiest" ?.
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Dis-Member
That they have the truth and have been chosen by Jesus in whenever..
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Why are alot of JW's Fascinated with Sci-Fi?
by NoMoreHustle ini am still in & gradually fading.
i have always wondered why alot of jw's that i know are really into alot of sci-fi stuff like star wars, i robot, x-men stuff etc.
i mean they take it another level with this fantasy stuff.
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Dis-Member
It's called 'train spotting' mentality. Which is now being defined as a mental illness.
Train Spotting makes it into the Psychologists Handbook
A leaked memo has indicated that obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) has been sub-categorised, with train spotting specifically mentioned.
"It is true that we have identified train spotting as a form of OCD," said Talon. "Decades of research on train spotters have confirmed this as true. Besides, I saw the movie, and that was a seriously disturbed piece of cinema."
According to Talon, train spotting had always been considered a form of OCD, but the study revealed that it also contained a large dollop (technical term) of compulsive completist syndrome (CCS) and Aspergers Syndrome (Aspergers Syndrome).
"We have separated it out because of its combined factors," said Talon. "In the same we we split hoarding out from CCS because it has a small dollop of Abandonment Disorder."
Now that train spotting is a specific mental illness in its own right, it will not be long before it can be diagnosed and treated.
"We have fully documented the symptoms," said Talon. "These include an inability to become bored, being impervious to the cold, excellent circulation and a welded on raincoat. Psychologically, train spotters are very similar to well adjusted folk, however, they get a dopamine buzz from seeing a train that is in all respects identical to every other train they have ever seen apart from the colour of a wheel nut. Oh, and they don't know how to deal with people."
Big Pharma are already moving into the field in anticipation of the Handbook's release. It is anticipated that a cure for train spotting could be available as early as next March. Glaxo-Beecham-Proctor are to deliver it to towns in a custom made Diesel Electric locomotive to ensure the maximum number of customers.
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I'm out- Random thoughts on leaving as I look in the rear view mirror
by Skinnedsheep init is amazing to look back at three years and see the journey that we have taken.
i went from being an elder to fading completely in the course of those three years.
along the way i am happy to say that my lovely wife woke up and realized that the truth is nothing but a lie.
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Dis-Member
Great story SkinnedSheep.. thank you for sharing.
Witnesses look for the worst in people, and when it isn’t there, they make it up.
This is so true.. I heard all sorts about myself when I left.. I heard I was on drugs, that I was in countries I had never been in, that I was in jail, that I was an apostate, and even that I was dead! Man I even heard some of these things when I was doing special pioneering hours!! The levels of malicious gossip among this unhealthy stagnant group is nothing short of toxic.
So happy that you and your family are doing well and living full and productive and real lives. There's nothing like it.
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Do as we say not as we do.. (or spiritual hypocrites to those in the trade.)
by Dis-Member inwhen i first started 'pioneering' at aged 19 i was encouraged by my so called spiritual leaders(elders) to do window cleaning.
which i did but could never make enough to support myself, so i had to take a second part time job which was also a cleaner at a primary school.
i was always broke and always poor.. what never really clicked with me until many years after leaving was that none of these so called elder spiritual guides did window cleaning or pioneered themselves.. in fact they did the very opposite and lived very full and rich lives.. one ran his own building firm and dealt with milt-million pound contracts, another had his own very successful double glazing business, another was some kind of mechanical engineer who worked for some big multi-national organisation, another was a chemical engineer, another owned and ran his own very busy printing firm.
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Wow, you really burned bright and burned out fast. And all because you were really sincere about the religion!
I was indeed very sincere and passionate about what I was taught and read and of course took it all on face value and trust.. but when I got to see how people really were and behaved in that religion.. coupled with a diligent and critical study of their history and teachings (TTATT) my zeal and respect for the organisation and the people that fill it was snuffed out like a candle in strong breeze.
Sincerity will bring you in.. and the very same sincerity will take you out.
POOF!
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What happy, wonderful thing happened to you since you left the "truth"?
by Jeannette inmore than one thing for me, but i have learned to enjoy festivals, and just enjoying free time.
it's not that the org wouldn't allow it, i just felt i shouldn't.
there are others, of course, and i really have been happier and good things have come my way since i left.
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Dis-Member
As above...
I can stay home and play my jazz guitar every morning now instead of standing alone at the subway station a 6am with Awake magazines in my hand being completey ignored for 4 hours..
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Do as we say not as we do.. (or spiritual hypocrites to those in the trade.)
by Dis-Member inwhen i first started 'pioneering' at aged 19 i was encouraged by my so called spiritual leaders(elders) to do window cleaning.
which i did but could never make enough to support myself, so i had to take a second part time job which was also a cleaner at a primary school.
i was always broke and always poor.. what never really clicked with me until many years after leaving was that none of these so called elder spiritual guides did window cleaning or pioneered themselves.. in fact they did the very opposite and lived very full and rich lives.. one ran his own building firm and dealt with milt-million pound contracts, another had his own very successful double glazing business, another was some kind of mechanical engineer who worked for some big multi-national organisation, another was a chemical engineer, another owned and ran his own very busy printing firm.
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Dis-Member
sorry for the unhappiness.
That was a very long time ago Disposable but thank you. I was just reminiscing. I am now a qualified network engineer and I.T Specialist, also a professional photographer and professional musician. If I push myself I can earn $650 an hour. Not too long ago I sold a single image for $2,500. I came very close to selling 6 images for $26,000 to a very large corporation. Sooner or later I'll clinch that deal.
My total time 'in' the org adds up to less than 3 years. I can only imagine what people must feel like who have spent their entire lives in there. What a terrifying thought!
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Do as we say not as we do.. (or spiritual hypocrites to those in the trade.)
by Dis-Member inwhen i first started 'pioneering' at aged 19 i was encouraged by my so called spiritual leaders(elders) to do window cleaning.
which i did but could never make enough to support myself, so i had to take a second part time job which was also a cleaner at a primary school.
i was always broke and always poor.. what never really clicked with me until many years after leaving was that none of these so called elder spiritual guides did window cleaning or pioneered themselves.. in fact they did the very opposite and lived very full and rich lives.. one ran his own building firm and dealt with milt-million pound contracts, another had his own very successful double glazing business, another was some kind of mechanical engineer who worked for some big multi-national organisation, another was a chemical engineer, another owned and ran his own very busy printing firm.
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Dis-Member
When I first started 'pioneering' at aged 19 I was encouraged by my so called spiritual leaders(elders) to do window cleaning. Which I did but could never make enough to support myself, so I had to take a second part time job which was also a cleaner at a primary school. I was always broke and always poor.
What never really clicked with me until many years after leaving was that none of these so called elder spiritual guides did window cleaning or pioneered themselves.
In fact they did the very opposite and lived very full and rich lives.
One ran his own building firm and dealt with milt-million pound contracts, another had his own very successful double glazing business, another was some kind of mechanical engineer who worked for some big multi-national organisation, another was a chemical engineer, another owned and ran his own very busy printing firm. In actual fact almost all of them were either directors and owners of their own companies or had very senior positions and high paying salaries in worldly organisations. Those that ran their own businesses all employed other pioneering brothers or sisters and paid them all a meagre wage for working hard and long hours.
All of them were married, had numerous children, owned their own beautifully furnished 3 to 5 bedroom homes, all wore quality and immaculately tailored suits, owned multiple cars (which they used to drive past me while waving in foul weather while I walked the 6 miles to and from hall) and took their families on several holidays a year which explained the constant healthy tanned complexions. Their also immaculately dressed kids were the first to have cars the moment they left school and were old enough to drive.. they walked straight into the best jobs in other brothers businesses, and had their dating and marriages arranged by and with the cream of the congregation and were the constant stars in all demonstrations on the platform.
Yet they constantly encouraged and steered me into remaining single and forget all thoughts of dating, become a full time preacher and maybe missionary, ride a bicycle everywhere in all weathers, get my clothes from second hand shops and be menial cleaner to support myself as it would make God and Jesus very pleased with me. Yet somehow I was still not good enough to ever date anyone's daughter or to be invited anywhere. I'd say these people made the few years I spent with them the saddest, most lonely, depressing and miserable I have ever experienced in my entire life. I have kept detailed diaries since I was 13 years old.. and if I read what I wrote during that period you would think I was about to commit suicide such was my heart rupturing sadness and misery.It I had remained there with those people, as a single person with no family in the organisation I would have condemned myself to a life of utter loneliness, abject poverty and complete social rejection even in the congregation for being a broke ass nothing orphan.
How on earth could we ever put ourselves in a situation where we allowed to be manipulated and wrestled from our grasp total power and control of our lives, if we date, if we marry, who we marry, when we marry, what work we do, how we dress, how we speak, how we think, how we feel, who and the very definition of what we are even to some overweight, lazy, privileged self-important hypocrites?
Dam...
The best thing I ever did was leave and get as far from these life crippling, brain dumbing, talent killing exploitative pretenders and impostors as possible and liberate myself from what could only be described as a form of modern slavery.
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Spirituality is innate!
by Pinku inon seeing the horrifying scene of world trade centre being attacked and knowing the pain of those trapped in and their loved ones, not only in new york but across the world millions of people turned into silence, prayer, and meditation.
they gathered on the streets, lit candles, wrote condolence, anything to feel solidarity and to spread a wave of love.
churches, temples, mosques and retreat centers were flooded with people seeking to raise their consciousness beyond the senseless killing to a higher, more noble plane.
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Dis-Member
Didn't work though did it. That so called spiritual collectivity and conciousness has not improved the world one single tiny bit. In fact since 9/11 the world is a far more dangerous and wicked place then it's ever been. Just watch the news.
Collective thinking what ever it's form does nothing at all. Think of the billions of people every day willing and wishing to be rich. Yet the wealth of the world remains firmly in the hands of the !%.
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They can deny they are a cult as much as they like but their own printed history reveals the true nature of the Watchtower.
by nicolaou inthis is a very familiar quote to many of us but try reading it as if you are 'joe public'.
doesn't it just scream, cult!.
7 only jehovah's witnesses, those of the anointed remnant and the "great crowd", as a united organization under the protection of the supreme organizar, have any scriptural hope of surviving the impending end of this doomed system dominated by satan the devil.. the watchtower october 1st 1989 page 19. remaining organised for survival into the millenium.
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Dis-Member
And now they are saying the complete opposite..
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