How many ex JWs return to the Borg?

greendawn

Someone told me there are statistics showing that ultimately one third of JWs leaving will go back to the borg. This is not the general impression one gets from this forum.

So what's really happening? Perhaps some people can't stand being alienated from their families for a lifetime but still I feel not that many go back.

jeanniebeanz

I remember it being said 'from the platform' that something like 90% return, but that smells fishy to me. I understand that the suicide rate is quite high for people who were raised 'in' and lose their families, children, spouses when they leave...

Damn cult...

J

atypical

I have known several personally who returned. I get the impression with all of them that the loneliness was too much and they caved. Also, they all seemed to be even more self-righteous and ambitious after returning. Maybe it's a last ditch effort to feel important and loved.

JH

Even if many return ~~to their vomit~~, most of them come back out eventually.

luna2

Having found out that it's all a bunch of hooey, I can't imagine ever going back. Even when I was an inactive believer I had a hard time thinking about going back into that morass of guilt, stress and hamster-wheel activity.

Of course, not having any family still captive to the borg, there is no incentive for me to wade back into the sewer.

garybuss

Me thinks walkaways keep walking.

cheezy

I really think you'd have to define, quantify and qualify terms:

"go back to the organization"
apostate
inactive
believer
unbaptized
"leave the organization"

A lot of people on this site are still considered "in" the organization, even though they don't believe it. So maybe a better question would recognize those who are at the extreme ends of the continuum - from raging, active apostate (that would be me ) to a totally lobotomized Stepford witness who would rat out his own grandmother for humming Jingle Bells. That leaves an awful lot of folks in the middle - like deer caught in the headlights (or a bear cub playing with his pee-pee.)

serendipity

Hi Greendawn,
I think the statistic applied to young ones who left as young adults and came back later.

drew sagan

There are so many people that leave for bad reasons. There was a guy in one of my old book stuides. He grew up a Witness but eventually left. He was a drunk and more than likely used drugs. One night at the book study he made this comment about how during that point of his the the "truth haunted him" and that it followed him everywhere he went. This is a feeling amongst many who leave for reasons dealing with simply poor choices in their life. They leave for bad reasons, get hurt by going overboard, and then return to Watchtower because they never really stopped believing it was the truth. I know a bunch of people like this, thank God i'm not one of them.

stevenyc

I personally know a few that have returned to get their family back, and then do the slow fade.

steve

How many ex JWs return to the Borg?

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