Road to Recovery (page 2)

The Searcher

Hi VINMAN, welcome, and try to stay calm and focused as your knowledge grows.

You have a P.M.

Witness My Fury

SOT I go where the evidence leads, it leads plainly and easily to atheism. I considered myself agnostic for about a year, but continued research soon put an end to that.

educate yourself in reality....read all you can - digest it......recovery will take years. you don't realize how deeply this religion can affect your thought processes and gut reactions until you remove yourself from it far enough to attain some objectivity. and with that comes a freedom and a peace that is simply exquisite - especially given the imprisonment of spirit and intellect that that religion fosters.

Slave4_38y

If you throw away the Bible after life in the Watchtower, that really tells you the power of that organization.

Vinman, if you were born around here (33°23'01.2"N 43°34'54.5"E) you would have wholeheartedly believed in the Quaran and probably be the best Muslim you could possible be. Because that's what you were taught by your parents, and their parents , and society, etc, etc.

If you were born around here (25°19'48.1"N 74°35'28.8"E) you would have wholeheartedly believed in the the Vedas and be the best Hindu you could possible be. That's what you would have been taught (indoctrinated).

Once you start questioning your faith and believe system, YOU START TO QUESTION EVERYTHING.

Have a look at the stats:

2,173,180,000 Christians (31% of world population), of which 50% are Catholic, 37% Protestant, 12% Orthodox, and 1% other.
1,598,510,000 Muslims (23%), of which 87-90% are Sunnis, 10-13% Shia.
1,126,500,000 No Religion affiliation (16%): atheists, agnostics and people who do not identify with any particular religion. One-in-five people (20%) in the United States are religiously unaffiliated.
1,033,080,000 Hindus (15%), the overwhelming majority (94%) of which live in India.
487,540,000 Buddhists (7%), of which half live in China.
405,120,000 Folk Religionists (6%): faiths that are closely associated with a particular group of people, ethnicity or tribe.
58,110,000 Other Religions (1%): Baha’i faith, Taoism, Jainism, Shintoism, Sikhism, Tenrikyo, Wicca, Zoroastrianism and many others.
13,850,000 Jews (0.2%), four-fifths of which live in two countries: United States (41%) and Israel (41%).

You believe what you were taught. Unless you prefer to think for yourself like most of us on this forum . . .

LostGeneration

Vinman,

Welcome to the board!

Your question triggered a lot of memories for me, I think I spend a solid six months simply reading and re-reading information online once the floodgates opened. I too questioned myself, wondering why I was reading the same things over and over again.

I'm no psychologist, but I really think it has to do with our brains trying to fully process the new information. We have read it, we understand it, yet we still don't accept it because of the decades of indoctrination.

I felt foolish wasting time reading it over and over, asking myself why I couldn't stop. Eventually it did stop, when my brain was ready. Best of luck on your spiritual journey!

millie210

My personal passage was to become aware by seeing too much injustice within the Org. That lead to reading and learning that it was the tip of an iceberg really.

I had good memories and would have been a JW to the end of my days just like you stated. Moving away has been hard but knowledge about the Org. has decreased the pain and helped with healing.

There are people at every level on this site. At first I felt pressured to instantly accept atheism or else I just wasnt progressing to a reality based life!

Then I stepped back and thought for myself and realized that was just another form of preaching. We are all a bunch of ex witnesses after all and some just cannot resist preaching even though they have a new subject.

Once I could detach and not respond emotionally to that, was when I was really able to get the most out of this site.

There is no rush. As many have stated above, it is a process and you will see where it leads you. Keep reading and accept that it will be a two steps forward and one step backwards process at times.

Grieving the loss of what one thought was true while trying to search out a new path is a highly intuitive thing and it will and should take time.

Where you are right now is a tough place to be but it will get better. I promise.

Vidiot

A lot of XJWs were True Believers.

ihunt

Vinman, welcome!

I have found that one of the most exhilarating aspects of being free from the Watchtower has been using my mind to freely observe and think critically- we were always taught that all the answers of life could be found on some page of one book or another! After everything has been read, take your time to observe and to reason on things with your own mind. Best of luck...

iHunt

Giordano

Vinman whatever you decide, whatever you believe, or don't believe is your decision to make. And unless you become an obnoxious atheist, or obnoxious new christy Christain you'll be repected on this thinking person's forum.

I am sorry you are going through this process but you will eventually find a way to reconcile your needs and your beliefs.

My wife and I left over 48 years ago after pioneering were the need was great. I couldn't make sense out of Armageddon, Jesus didn't even mention it nor the dangerous blood doctrine. I came to understand that I was a member, in good standing, of a death cult. In later years JW's proudly walk around with a blood card on their person.....a one size fits all suicide note.

It took a while to puzzle my way out, about three years in fact. The book The Rise and Fall of The Third Reich brought home the true meaning of human suffering especially when I realized it was happening to among others, the Jews and JW's, both of whom believed they were God's chosen people. My perspective certainly changed to something more closely resembling the following.

"Remembrance of the Holocaust leaves me unsympathetic to attempts to justify the ways of God to man. If there is a God that has special plans for humans, then He has taken very great pains to hide His concern for us. To me it would seem impolite if not impious to bother such a God with our prayers."

Steven Weinberg

So I don't think about being a religious person and I don't think about being an Atheist....... I couldn't care less if there is a god or not. I do care about being a good person capable of good works that benefit the community we live in.

Xanthippe

I hope you're ok vinman. I noticed you haven't replied and I hope you aren't too stressed with realising everything you believed about this religion is false.

It's a very difficult time and something we have all been through so get in touch if you need to talk or perhaps you are talking to the people who sent you PMs. I hope so, take care.

Road to Recovery