Posts by StarTrekAngel

23

Elders School 2017: New instructions to handle sexual abuses?

by sp74bb in

an informant in spanish forum, active elder in a congregation in madrid (spain) has posted new info regarding elders school 2017. important changes are to be done for "child" or sexual abuses.

https://abusostj.vbulletin.net/forum/main-forum/audiencias-judiciales/5506-escuela-de-ancianos-2017.

doing a summary:.

A better way to ask questions - Anybody remember "Amazing"?

by Bonnie_Clyde in

first of all, i wonder whatever happened to jim whitney (aka amazing).

when i first joined this forum, i remember being so impressed by the way he got his family out.

instead of knocking the organization head-on, he would ask questions that can't be answered during his family study, such as, "how would you answer someone if they said we were false prophets?

I think he may had a very particular situation with his family. He had probably earned 120% of their trust over the years. If one of your loved ones is a bit colder when it comes to questioning, they may be faster to judge your intentions than to actually ponder over the question. My wife for example, can not see the potential danger behind attending (if not following, just attending) a church that may have dark secrets or a dark past. However, her first judgement when I lend my careless 12 year old a $1000 camera is that I want her to break it so I can have an excuse to get a new one. Never can she conclude that my girl is better off chasing butterflies with a camera than sitting on the couch watching TV all day.

9

New MacBook Pro fails with lowsy 3 to 4 hour battery life

by jwleaks in

with 2017 fast looming i was looking at upgrading my laptop and was eagerly awaiting the release, and reviews, for the new apple macbook pro series and the promoted longer battery life.. fail ... 3 to 4 hrs for the battery life.

lowsy results also reported by apple discussion members.. new macbook pros fail to earn 'consumer reports' recommendation.

by jerry beilinson.

StarTrekAngel

I've been using Macs since about 2006. Here at work that is all they give us, everything is Apple. In my humble opinion, Apple products began quickly changing for the worst once Steve Jobs died. May be a coincidence but I notice the sacrifices being made in the name of marketing when Steve used to strive for practical functionality. For people who travel a lot weight is key, may be not size but weight. Also, I am sure that in this day an age the airline industry probably appreciates this push for lighter, thinner computers. But after all, those are the numbers that sell a lot. How much futuristic the product looks, not how much more futuristic the product works.

24

Has waking up ever made you physically ill?

by fizzle in

jw
friends

has waking up ever made you physically ill?

perhaps because of the emotional strain etc..?.

if if so what were / are the symptoms?.

StarTrekAngel

To me this clearly demonstrates that we are victims. I get a bit agitated by some people out there who think we got what we deserved. Whether they think we are dumb or that we always had a choice to do the right thing but we choose not to. Your reality is radically changed when you are a JW and so you always feel you are doing the right thing, which now looking back makes you wonder... what was I thinking about?. Steven Hassan very clearly describes it in his book. Cult members did not change. They do not turn good or bad for that matter. Their will is not under control, rather the enviromment under which the will is exercised has changed and therefore they do things that are logical to outsiders but sounds very logical to them.

10

JWs vandalizing homes/property of apostates

by StarTrekAngel in

i have read over the past few years of many cases of elder harassment and unwanted visitations.

however, there is a couple of stories out there where it has been presented that eventually the apostate in question comes home one day to find that their home has been trashed or covered with graffiti, which by the words written, seems to imply that it was a jw taking "revenge" or seemingly delivering divine justice against the apostate.

most of these are stories i've read online from several years ago.. have you individually or the group ever heard or stumbled upon these cases?

StarTrekAngel

I have read over the past few years of many cases of elder harassment and unwanted visitations. However, there is a couple of stories out there where it has been presented that eventually the apostate in question comes home one day to find that their home has been trashed or covered with graffiti, which by the words written, seems to imply that it was a JW taking "revenge" or seemingly delivering divine justice against the apostate. Most of these are stories I've read online from several years ago.

Have you individually or the group ever heard or stumbled upon these cases? If so, have you ever had reason to believe the individual in question, while truthful about their harassment, was trying to increase attention to themselves?

24

Has waking up ever made you physically ill?

by fizzle in

jw
friends

has waking up ever made you physically ill?

perhaps because of the emotional strain etc..?.

if if so what were / are the symptoms?.

StarTrekAngel

For me it was difficult to point to a trigger so for a while it was hard to relate one with the other, which made it scary. I slowly began to realize that anything that was emotional, wether excitement about something good or anxiety about something bad, would eventually lead to the same physical manifestations. I could be laying down in my couch watching a comedy and laughing my butt off. Clear minded and all and then all of a sudden it would come.

24

Has waking up ever made you physically ill?

by fizzle in

jw
friends

has waking up ever made you physically ill?

perhaps because of the emotional strain etc..?.

if if so what were / are the symptoms?.

StarTrekAngel

The most shocking part, which eventually causes the stress that leads to illness, is the coming to realization that the people you love the most are the first ones to doubt you. The more you understand about brainwashing, the more obvious it becomes that they are not themselves and you can hardly hold them accountable. Which leads to a greater feeling of your family being victimized by these assholes. Being able to reason thru all of these breaks the defense mechanism of cognitive dissonance which would protected you from emotional stress.

45

Disassociation - shunning - can we all lobby Government that it is against freedom of religion?

by stockholm_Syndrome in

if jws want to inflict shunning on members who want to remain -- knock yourselves out.

but if someone wants to leave - dont believe in an evil almighty god, bible ...or just dont agree with the rules- they should be free to leave- even after being 'disfellowshipped'.

i think it was pre 1980 that you could disassociate yourself without shunning repercussions.

StarTrekAngel

I agree with galaxie. Shunning in and on itself is something that as Simon and others said, would probably never fly. But you know as well as everyone else here that shunning is only the means to an end and that is how it should be looked at. The fact that most JW would shun you just because the GB says so is not the final goal. The GB are glad JWs shun just on their call alone but the ulterior motive is to force people to stick around. I believe that government could take action on those grounds just like the government would take action if a religion would use their belief as a basis to harm people physically. As long as it could be demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt that the practice of shunning forces people to involuntarily remain members, may be. But it is a bit more difficult to do this when the responsibilities are put on the actual members and there is no actual physical harm. I believe society is slowly becoming more aware of the damage of emotional trauma and manipulation but it is a slow road.

24

Has waking up ever made you physically ill?

by fizzle in

jw
friends

has waking up ever made you physically ill?

perhaps because of the emotional strain etc..?.

if if so what were / are the symptoms?.

StarTrekAngel

Based on the observations of at least 4 doctors, it has.

Around February of 2016 I began feeling a bit dizzy. Not nauseous but rather unstable. One weekend it went over the top and so I went to the ER. My blood pressure was 170/110. ER Doc gave me a pill to lower it and sent me home. He did assume that I was going to be in the pill for the rest of my life. Went to family doctor and got labs. All labs were in check (No cholesterol or anything) I am only 38 and up until that point I had been working out 3-4 times a week for the past 4 years. Blood pressure was 108/78. He was reluctant to give me an official diagnoses of hypertension since I told him I had been under quite a bit of stress, both at work and at home. He insisted I needed to calm down but I told him it was difficult to do so because I had started feeling a sensation in my chest, similar to what you feel when you are utterly scared or are watching a very suspenseful movie. He said it was all in my head and suggested I could go get a stress test. He also suggested therapy. Therapist was aware of my situation (TTATT) since I had seen him before. He too said that it all looked like it was just panic attacks as he had experienced them in the past himself. He is a professor of psychology at a local university and he recently asked his students if anyone had ever had a panic attack, to what most replied NO. He told them that was too bad because they will confront the conditions in their career and it will be hard for them to relate.

I went to get a stress test. The cardiologist was supposed to give me another appointment to discuss the results. Upon stepping off the machine he said the results were so normal he did not want to waste my time with another appointment. At a follow up appointment my family doctor insisted that it was all in my head. He gave me Xanax which helped quite a bit. Since I told him the dizziness was not going away, he sent me to get an MRI. All clear as well. While I trusted his diagnosis of the tests, his tone of dismissal about what seemed very real sensations did not provide me much confidence. (besides, the DR is a JW as well). I ended up with a great doctor who actually takes the time to listen and does a whole lifestyle evaluation, including potential emotional issues. Since he is not a JW I was able to discuss these things with him. Fortunately, he had a grandmother who went thru similar issues and had a fall out with the cult so he understood. He too believed it was mostly stress and anxiety but did not want to dismiss my feelings so he did and EKG and put me in a monitor for 3 days. All clear as well. Labs as well all clear. He gave me a beta blocker, which is supposed to work better than Xanax and is not addictive (plus I can drink :) ). I tried to use alternative methods like meditation and natural relaxers like Valerian root. (besides things were getting better so I figure why take medication).

Long story short, here I am almost a year later, I am still "recovering". Bellow is a short lists of some of the things that I physically felt. Sometimes I feel a little doubtful as to what is the source of it and wether it is one of those conditions that are hard to properly diagnose. But I figure that if it hasn't kill me yet, then is probably going to be ok. If it helps others avoid such lengthy recovery, then I will feel good about it.

-Early, like for the first 4 months or so, on I felt dizzy/unstable. Would ask for assistance if I had to climb a lather when before I could balance myself.

- A sensation on the center of the chest as if I was watching a scary or suspenseful movie (remember feeling very much this way when I watched "The hurt locker"). Never the less, it was never chest pain.

- A sensation of impending doom which I could not explain. In the worst days it felt like any second my heart was going to burst

- An unexplainable feeling of sadness to the point where I wanted to cry for no reason whatsoever.

- Every now and then, and now in hindsight I can say that this happened specially when around a JW, the dizziness would come all of a sudden accompanied with a cold sweat and a buzzy feeling in my head.

- A fear of going to sleep without feeling that my wife was there. Had to feel her presence in order to fall asleep.

- Later on, as much of the above started dissipating, I would wake up in the middle of the night with this fearful sensation, like if something was about to happen. After about half hour it would go away and I would fall back asleep.

- For whatever reason I started to feel like my prostate would contract and release several time during urination, so I would pee in sort of interrupted streams. That too went away eventually

- I would also shake uncontrollably when having an orgasm, which made sex a bit difficult and scary.

At this point, I am left with what feels like a cough is stuck in my throat but won't come out. Every now and then I still feel this what can be described as a sudden fear but sometimes it is accompanied by this weird sensation in my chest as if my heart was pushing against the wind pipe pushing air out. I had a septoplasty (deviated septum) surgery last week and had to be tested prior to surgery. EKG, labs and chest X-rays were all normal.

30

Were you aware of the shunning policy when becoming a JW

by UnshackleTheChains in

for those who became jws, were you fully aware of the societys cruel shunning policy whilst studying?

i absolutely had no idea such a policy existed until years later.

it really only hit home when reading the horrendous stories on the internet around 2002. .

StarTrekAngel

I was too, very early in the process as the elder that "trained me" was very open and direct once he thought you were making good progress. However, the words he used were very subtle. The understanding that I left with is that the person being shunned had committed a very bad sin, like killing or cheating repeatedly and unrepentantly. Even then, my understanding was that certain family ties were irrevocable. My wife referred the story of my brother in law who got married without parent and elders blessings. He got DFd and he left the house voluntarily. Wife insisted that he could have stayed and that no one would have quit talking to him. Which was true for her family but it made it seem like shunning was not that strict.

This, off course, was before many of the latter crazy push for shunning kids, or even those who talk against the organization.