.
as a jw we asked god, in prayers, for his holy spirit to understand things better and be a better teacher of the good news.
did you ever feel god's holy spirit give you strength or understanding?
Nope, but then again, we are taught to ask for spiritual help, then we are taught to never quiet our thoughts or "open our minds" lest the demonz get in there. So how are we ever supposed to receive any spiritual direction of any sort.
Right now I'm trying to teach myself to be open to energy meridians. Not quite the same as HOLY SPIRIT, but it really does change your perspective.
BTW all you alternative folk... any advice? books to read? This really needs its own thread. HAHA!!
Odrade
i have recently found out that my highschool diploma is no good.. so, now i'm enrolled in a ged course so i can have that to get into the program.
the problem is, they can't hold my position, they have to give it to someone else.
i can reapply next year, but who know's if there will be any positions open then.. this is so humiliating and embarassing, i'm 34 and i find out from someone else my diploma is no good, worse yet, i have to get a ged.
oh man, Obiwan, that's a tough break. Your warning is well heeded. There are MANY homeschool programs that are "accredited" but not state approved. Or they may be state approved in one state but not another. Or the accreditation is issued from an independent source and not recognized by anyone except that source. What a shame you got caught in this.
Luck on your GED.
if you've left all your family and friends for "the truth" and then you realize how everything you did was for nothing, how do you just go back, especially, if it's been 25 years???
my wife is going thru this dillema right now.
my daughter just went to a family member's birthday party for the 1st time yesterday and my wife feels as though she is unable to be involved because "what will the family think of her after all the birthdays and celebrations" she missed?
I don't have any suggestions because I'm facing the same thing. It's one of the reasons I want to DA instead of fading. My immediate family only converted when I was very small. So all of my extended family is either other religions, or no religion at all. They always have a bang-up Christmas party, and good birthdays, with cake, tree, treats, gifts, decorations, the whole 9 yards. All the rest of the family attends, just not us. Same for Turkey day.
I have never participated. I really want to this year for the first time. But because we are fading (in respect to my husband who has a large JW family to try and keep) I can't go have Christmas or anything else with them. It would definitely get back to my family, and they would be immediately telling the elders, and getting things stirred up. So I'm not sure how to get around that one either.
My family (all the non-jw ones) would be THRILLED that I got out and spent holidays with them, so I feel especially sorry that we will not, though we no longer have any objections.
Odrade
And BTW, Min, ask your wife how she would have felt when she was a faithful Dubbie, if her relatives had QUIT doing the holidays to become JWs? She would have been overjoyed that they had "come to their senses", right? This is just how her "worldly" family will feel. They will be ecstatic that she finally woke up and wants to be a full part of the family again.
has anyone seen any publications which say santa is another name for satan...maybe the insight book?.
it was spouted at me on the weekend and i laughed..which you should never do to jw's as it gets their hair up.. .
shotgun
Yes, I've heard that one many times too. Never have seen it in print though. It's just a word game in my opinion.
on www.watchtower.org there is a reprint of an article from jama (journal of the american medical association) from way back in 1981.. http://www.watchtower.org/library/hb/index.htm?article=article_06.htm.
does anyone have access to back copies of jama?
i'm curious if this is in the editorial section and who the author was.
Okay, thanks for the bump Craig. For clarification, Gene Smalley is not a doctor, I'm not certain what his capacity at Bethel is, but it's not medical. Dr. Dixon is indeed a Doctor, but AFAIK is not and has never been a surgeon. He is or was also a Bethel Witness. What I find disturbing about this article being posted to www.watchtower.org, is that it's presented as a legitimate 3rd party commentary on the JW position regarding bloodless surgery. In actuality, it is an editorial written by Witnesses, published in a secular magazine, then quoted by the JWs as a secular source.
Crediting this article only to JAMA (as the WTS website did) with no accompanying reference to the true JW authors of the article, is indeed a "shell game" in my opinion. It is deceptive in that it leads people to believe there is mainstream medical support of the No Blood Stance, by presenting it as if it were from a trusted source--a well-known medical journal to which most people have no personal access.
Odrade
if 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?
Blondie, that was really interesting, I'm copying the whole post to my files. Unlike you, I have read all 170+ posts in this thread, in an effort to understand how I was so deceived. I think most of the disagreement has come from not having a definition of mind-control. This information summed it up nicely. I could see my JW self in every facet. Makes me even more determined to root out every last vestige of implanted ideas and triggers.
Odrade
hey, i have been playing the electric bass for about a year now, but since im being df'ed i wont be able to go and practice like i used to.
anyone got a setup where a few people could come by one or twice a week and jam?
Blaid, hop a bus over to SE (hawthorne area) and look in the coffee shops. There are usually calls on the pegboards for jam sessions/new members. Also, try Apple Music, they always have informal listings.
(Yes, I'm from the area.)
Odrade
how many of you have had to keep up the facade on the outside,while on the inside you were dying?.
the facade being putting on a happy face in front of the elders and others while knowing what you know about the society and all the harm it has done.. how long did you keep up this facade before it began to affect your well-being?.
for me it lasted about a couple of years before i started to do the fade and have started to feel better.. blueblades
For a LONG time, but I didn't know that is what I was doing. My husband had been researching for several months about JWs and the pedophile issues, medical issues and doctrinal flip-flopping. But he never said a word to me. Finally, I started wondering what he was so absorbed in. I dragged it out of him, what he was reading. He was VERY reluctant to tell me, because even though he wasn't worried I would turn him in to the elders, he was concerned that I would disagree, and it would cause a rift.
Anyways, I started looking at the information, and within a couple of hours I knew I could never return to it. (JWism) My health had been suffering, lots of mild illness, mild bouts of depression. Once the decision was made, it was like a great weight lifted off.
Odrade
is the jw religion that different from other religions, i am not talking about beliefs, but the set up and blueprint that they work from.. i had a great discussion the other day with 2 hetterites (not sure how to spell it) both in their mid-twenties, they talked about how they had just left about one month ago and were going up to fort mcmurray to work, as they talked about their childhood, their beliefs, their upbringing, their rules, do's and don'ts, i swear they could of been jw's, i mean they went throught the exact things that alot of us on this board went through, it was amazing and frightening.. not knowing alot about other religions, are the problems we went through with the jw religion any different from someone who is mormon, muslim etc.
etc., do all religions although different beliefs by far, basically have the same blueprint in runnning their organization ???
and controlling people ??
Yes, that is what she said. In my experience, from seeing them in my town and meeting them in field service, Assembly of God is very fundamentalist/isolationist. Of course not every individual involved in it will necessarily conform to that... also, probably not every assembly/congregation will have the same degree of restriction. I do know that my experiences with talking to Assembly of God confirm what the online friend told me. YMMV.
Here is an experience very similar to my friend's: http://www.spiritualabuse.org/experiences/other/helen.html
Odrade
have you ever had your eyelid twitch uncontrollably?
it's driving me crazy.
it's been going on over a year.
I didn't really mean which lid. I meant what is causing it, or where the twitch originates. Is it a muscle twitch or a nerve twitch. I don't know the difference, but I think muscle twitches usually respond better to supplements. Anyways, try the supplements, it's an easy and cheap thing to try first. Also, dehydration can cause twitches and spasms, as can certain common medications. Hard to say what it is, but if you've had it off and on for a year, there should be some change, even a slight one, that brought it on. You might need to do a little personal sleuthing.
Odrade
