I have generally always had a difficult time with praying, but sometimes I think I can 'feel' a prayer in my heart. If I pray using words, I pray to "our Father in Heaven". That's what I feel most comfortable with. Like others I feel spirituality mostly when I am outdoors. Nature is a true reflection of God, I think. One time when I went outside I had this most wonderful feeling come over me, like the influence of heaven was shining on nature! It was a beautiful moment. I think God's reflection is in all living things, that all living things are sacred. I can't recall ever feeling true spirituality in a Kingdom Hall. Just a religion. Religion that was sometimes pretty dry.
Catren
JoinedPosts by Catren
-
57
Do you miss feeling that "Jehovah" was listening to prayers?
by LyinEyes inthis is hard to explain, but i will try.
the other day, my neice was put in the hospital for test , after having two seizures, she is 20 and has never had any medical problems at all.
i now know, that by doing that it seemed to take the burden of helplessness off of my shoulders.
-
-
-
79
Six Billion Hearts Will Soon Stop Beating. . .
by ACEofCAD inannounced our circuit overseer last night in his talk about the urgency to preach because of the times.
followed by a silence that was broken with ohhhs and ahhhs.
he said that a couple of times throughout his part, simulating a beating heart with his fist.
-
-
Catren
This person's remark reminds me of being out in service years ago riding in a car with a pioneer sister and a couple of other JWs. Something was said on the radio about somebody dying, and the pioneer sister said, good, she was glad, that was one less worldly person! I could not believe her attitude! Why was she a full-time pioneer, if not because she loved people and wanted to go to their homes and share her religion with them?! I couldn't comprehend her feelings about somebody dying. It didn't make sense. (Also, out in service I noticed that people generally didn't talk about spiritual things when driving in the territory.) Anyway, it's comments like these that make you wonder.
Catren
-
55
Signs of the end, are they so clear that we don't see them anymore?
by JH in7 ?for nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be food shortages and earthquakes in one place after another.
8 all these things are a beginning of pangs of distress.
9 ?then people will deliver you up to tribulation and will kill you, and you will be objects of hatred by all the nations on account of my name.
-
-
Catren
When it comes to natural disasters like volcano eruptions and earthquakes, I saw a program the other night on PBS about Krakatoa and its eruption in 1883. It was such an incredible eruption that it has been called the biggest volcanic eruption in recorded history. It created a Tsunami greater than the one in 2004. With special effects they were able to recreate the disaster, plus there was some actual footage of volcanic eruptions, and they went to the rim of a volcano created by the eruption, and inside you could see the magma roiling and boiling. It was fascinating. To think that these are natural phenonema of our planet from inside its core is absolutely amazing and humbling. The worst volcanic eruption known to man took place over 100 years ago and who knows what and how many devastating events took place before that.
When it comes to the end and Jesus saying nobody knows when it is coming, not even He knew, it tells me not to spend too much time mulling over it. When people do all kinds of math and estimating to try to figure out when the end is coming, I find that I am not interested in their religion. To me, it is a waste of time. Why are they doing that? The JWs were always trying to predict the end, and I am so glad I am out of that cult. For so many reasons. I know that I am basically pretty ignorant about prophesy and so on, but I think that I can know that I should always try to be on my toes, so to speak, without fretting about what is going on in the world. We don't have the answers. We just don't. Horrible things have been happening on earth for centuries. All kinds of horrible things. Look at the Crusades and all other kinds of things that have occurred. I know I must sound like I am rambling away here. I don't always know how to express what I think. Thanks for your patience.
Catren
-
43
The Watchtower Saw It Coming!
by Englishman inthis article made me smile:.
march 15, 1986.. allow no place for the devil!.
"ephesians 4:26, 27.. a vicious wild beast is on the prowl.
-
-
Catren
This article felt so unctuous to me. Urk.
Catren
-
57
good news from Vicki Boer
by needs_lots inlooks like the letter writting campaign has paid off !!!!!!!!!!!!
the jw's have dropped costs, and there will be no exchange of money.
(which, yes, means i still will not receive my huge $5000.00 judgement) (thanks judge molloy!?
-
-
Catren
Wonderful news! Congratulations, Vicki!!! And thanks for paving the way for others. You're a pioneer!
-
62
How many have left the WTS and joined another church/group?
by BLISSISIGNORANCE inat this point in my life i don't think i could trust any religious group.
i don't even feel the need to be a part of anything like that right now, and maybe never will.. but i know of some who have joined other churches/groups since leaving the borg.. why do some join another religion and why won't some ever get involved again?.
what makes us so different?.
-
-
Catren
I no longer feel that I 'should' go to a church or 'find' a religion. I used to want to try out different churches after leaving the Witnesses, to check out different churches, but I'm peacefully now no longer in the I 'have' to find a church mode. That inward pressure to belong to some church is gone. So, religion itself is no longer important to me, but spirituality is, and believing in God and in His Son Jesus is beautifully important to me. A sense of spirituality is vital to me, but the idea of having a religion is no longer a compelling thing for me. It's a relief, at least for me, not to feel that I 'must' attend a church, that I 'must' find a religion. I discovered that my dad's back yard and its fulness of nature can feel like a cathedral to me. The connection to God through all of His awesome, wonderful creations can be so fulfilling. Just watching a dragonfly is an incredible experience. Everything that is life just seems so incredible and breathtaking. I don't feel the need to join, to belong to, a church, a religion, to feel that I fully love and appreciate God and all His blessings. I don't feel self-righteous in this mindset, because a sense of spirituality to me feels so totally humbling, in a joyful way. I don't take drugs to feel this way. When I look at what I've written here, I hope I don't seem to be on a high or something! It's just that the contrast to how I felt when I was a Jehovah's Witness is 180 degrees different. It's like I really am free now. I don't face a wall or a ceiling anymore everytime I turn around. Spirituality isn't contained in or by any legalism. I don't think I want to feel religious. I don't feel a need to feel religious. Not anymore. I do have a book that was recommended to me that someday I would like to read, 'Mere Christianity', by C. S. Lewis. I want to always be open to insight from others. But not to dogma, not to rules and regulations, not to anything radical or extreme, not to anything coercive. Never again.
-
3
Who Am I? Your new identity after the cult
by Dogpatch inpassing this on for those who can benefit from rediscovering themselves, whether they were born into an abusive group or not.
randy watters
http://www.freeminds.org
-
-
Catren
Thank you for this. It should help a lot of people. Before I left the Witnesses, I had started to feel depressed and empty, and I didn't feel that I had an identity. I became immersed in escapism. Not all of what I turned to for escape was healthy. I became extremely dependent on a counselor, for one thing. It was crazy. The advice and suggestions given here present healthy options for former Witnesses and/or drifting Witnesses. Thanks again.
Catren
-
193
Stupidest thing a JW ever told you
by Nosferatu inwhat is the stupidest thing a jw ever told you?
we all know that they say a lot of stupid things, but what really topped the cake?.
for me, it was an elder telling me i was progressing really well when my meeting attendance was down and my field service hours were slipping.
-
-
Catren
One of the things said to me was actually a question a brother asked me out of the blue when we were out in service. He asked, "What would you do if your husband hit you, since women aren't supposed to hit their husbands?" I was taken aback by his question and was dumbfounded, because I couldn't tell if he was kidding or not, so I just said, "Duck". I can think of some other things I could have said now.
-
207
Jehovah's Witnesses Are Under Mind Control
by minimus inif you were to tell a witness that they were "brainwashed" or that they were "under mind control", they certainly would not rationally accept it.the reason is because witnesses cannot distinguish between mind control and "obeying the faithful and discreet slave".
it is only after a person stops exposing himself to the subtle mind controlling tactics of the watchtower that a person can see how thoroughly duped they are in their beliefs.
how might you be able to tell that you are no longer your own person, able to make your own decisions in your life?
-
-
Catren
There have been so many great and thought provoking posts here on this subject!! Speaking for myself, because I think perhaps mind control is a very subjective experience (for instance, there are people who are very good candidates for hypnotism, while others are not), and that I couldn't possibly speak for Witnesses in general (someone would have to do a survey of millions of active Witnesses first), when I look back many moons ago to my zealous years as a Witness, I think I was willingly deluded. However, willingly or unwillingly, I was still deluded. The strange logic taught in the Bible studies, in the literature, and in the talks, etc. had altered the way I thought, the way I perceived things, even the way I felt about certain things. I think maybe my personal background, personal life experiences, personal current life situation and circumstances, my lack of a a religious foundation, my lack of Bible understanding, and so on probably had much to do with my being so easily persuaded that the Jehovah's Witnesses really had the 'truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth'. I think I said and did things of my own free will as a Jehovah's Witness, but looking back what I saw as my free will at that time didn't come from my own independent and autonomous thinking abilities, it came from the perspective of the mindset I'd developed as I became more and more caught up the teachings from the WTBTS. Of course, later on in my Witness 'career', the fear factor played a large part if I found myself wondering about anything that was taught by this "religion". But, and again, I can only speak and am only speaking for myself, I think my mind had been messed with to a point, where it doesn't really seem like it was my own mind, not really. Non totally. Eventually my mind went AWOL, but it was triggered by feelings of unhappiness, depression, and lack of real personal identity first. It was my gut feelings that really instigated a need to escape, not that I hadn't ever begun to quesion anything I was taught. For example, toward the last part of my Witness years I just couldn't buy into celebrating birthdays being a bad thing. It seemed like nonsense this birthday thing. Ultimately, though, it was how I was feeling that started to draw me out. Also, toward "the end", I discovered I couldn't shun people. I knew that I wasn't any 'better' than they were, that I was a mere person, a mere human being with faults and a long list of sins on my log of life. I would have felt so hypocritical shunning anyone, realizing I was not exactly walking around with a halo above my head. Anyway, I am so glad and happy to be out, way out of that religion. By the way, although the WTBTS is a publishing company, it is also responsible for everything printed in those books and other literature printed by it company, that it is responsible for everything it so called "spiritually" feeds millions of people through its publications. So, yes, I hold the "society" responsible, at least for a very large part of the words and actions of Jehovah's Witnesses everywhere. I know it got me hooked, a very vulnerable and gullible person when it 'got' me, but it hooked me just the same.
-
14
Urgent: The WTS is using it's website to spread deceit about child abuse.
by Latin assassin from Manhattan inhttp://www.silentlambs.org/
http://www.dirtclod.com/
http://www.watchtower.org .
-
-
Catren
GENERAL characteristics and traits of.....
Pedophiles....."Are primarily (but not always) male, masculine, better-educated, more religious than average, in their thirties, and choose jobs allowing them greater access to children".
....."Are usually family men, have no criminal record, and deny that they abuse children, even after caught, convicted, incarcerated, and court-ordered into a sex offender program. The marriage is often troubled by sexual dysfunction, and serves as a smokescreen for the pedophile's true preferences and practices".
*** "Celibacy isn't the reason priests prey on children. Sexual attraction to children, and sexual gratification from children, are the reasons."
From 'Profile Of A Pedophile', by Mental Health Professional and Social Worker Tammy Ruggles. Complete article available on Mental-Health-Matters.com. http://www.mental-health-matters.com/articles/article.php?artID=273