Brain Science Teaches You How to Fade Away As a JW!!!!

by metatron 10 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  metatron

  So, you feel trapped as Jehovah's Witness and want to get out, but don't know how? You keep agonizing about your Witness family

  and "friends" ( trust me, very few Witnesses are really your friends, since their friendship is entirely conditional on meeting attendance

  or the command of the elders on a judicial committee).

  Still, you would like to find an easier way to get "out of the truth".

  Well, modern brain science shows you how!

  Let me explain: Scientists did experiments with people whose left and right brains were surgically split apart to prevent seizures

  and found out something profound about human self deception. You see, they would flash a sign to only one eye that the 'reasoning

  side' of the brain couldn't "see". The sign would say "Get out of the room" or "start laughing" - and the people would obey!

  When asked why they suddenly did these things, they invented all sorts of logical reasons why they got up and left - or started

  laughing, never realizing that the cause was a sign that the "non reasoning" half of the brain "saw" and acted on!

  Now, to my main point: If you simply say that you suffer from depression and fade away from the "truth", most Witlesses

  will believe it! Not only is this true in my case but I know an elder and his wife who have recently done the same. They go to work

  everyday - but can't drag themselves to the meetings because they are too "depressed". Most of my "doubt" is quietly

  attributed to my "depression" ( and I don't need Prozac anymore, after resigning as an elder, Hee - Hee!) "If only he got some help

  or went back on his 'meds'", blah, blah blah.....

  They will believe what they want to believe, since they are already primed by years of Watchtower training in self deception.

  All you have to do is give them the "reason" that offers the minimal plausibility needed to spark their credence, namely

  "I suffer from depression".

  metatron
• 

  rmt1

  Cool. Do you have any sources? I've been reading up on Andrew Newberg, a neuroscientist who has done brain scans on Tibetan monks during meditation: the feeling of self-lessness, unity, oneness, ("one united shoulder"), as well as the suspension of the awareness of time ("he has put eternity in their hearts") has to do with the brain's ability to shut down the processing of incoming sensation which gives you your sense of time and bodily self, oneness, or distinction. I particularly remember the old "oneness" "moment" during the good songs at the District Assembly at Landover stadium, Maryland, where the dark distance gave the air a misty quality. That, and 10k people cannot sing on key or in time, so they slow the song waaay down into a sort of chant. This other neuroscientist, Michael (M. A.) Persinger, focuses on the right temporal lobe as a sensory processing area that is susceptible to electromagnetic disturbance of so many minimum Teslas, although every individual has a different sensitivity. The effects are too many (and too cool) to list but include the idea that the left hemisphere speech-processing center receives "voices" from the creative right hemisphere and interprets them as external to the self. The left hemisphere can also receive impressions that it interprets as a "presense" external to the self, such as in a haunting or a 'being next to God' experience.
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  juni

  Good info, but when I was experiencing clinical depression I was told to do my best to be at the mtgs. where the holy spirit is and also that I shouldn't pull away from people.

  Duh!! When you're depressed you can hardly get out of bed and the last thing you want to do is be around people.

  Juni
• 

  jojochan

  Well put, I would throw this out there at tem as well. My brother would get pissed off though, but my family accepts it. As well as the elder body that "knows" me. They leave me alone.

  Good post

  jojochan.
• 

  PoppyR

  It's so hard to fake depression though when you feel this happy

  But I agree with you, it's the easiest way out of the back door, most elders in most congregations are too tired and busy themselves to deal with your mental health issues! The odd one will pursue people, as we've seen, but I've known people fade really well so now nobody really is bothered what they are up to.

  Poppy x
• 

  anewme

  I have always been a bit of the dramatist and less the strategist. Wish I had faded. But in my case it was not possible. Ex hubby was/is very prominent and basks in the limelight of JWism. I pleaded depression, insanity, even adult onset retardation, but nothing worked. His view was that even the comotose or severely autistic should attend meetings if they have breath. So what was I to do?
  
  So I just did it the old fashion way! "And with one swift pitch Anewme was cast into the sea with the Devil and his demons!"
  
  There. Done.
• 

  White Waves

  Anewme, sounds like our hubbies should be friends. My ex-to-be would tell people I just didn't want to go when in fact I really was depressed. That progressed to hating the JW Borg and the elders that screwed up my life. I just could not sit through a meeting and not be furious or else more depressed. Why put forth so much effort to be there to feel like S***? My JW family has decided that I am insane (I accept) while my "worldy" family and friends find me quite sane and lovable... what ever works for ya-that is what I say.
• 

  Dune

  Hurts to say, but i'm WAY too proud to say im depressed.

  I'm moving to another congregation and fading while there.
• 

  thecarpenter

  hey metatron I'm curious as to where you found this material from (what publication). I would like to follow up on in. I'm reading the book 'Expecting Armaggedon - essential readings in failed prophecy' edited by Jon R. Stone.... what a fasinating book. Your findings would help to explain the reasoning of people who continue to believe in a false prophets (any false prophet from any religion) despite solid empirical evidence to the contrary. thanks
• 

  metatron

  Taken from "Bull's Eye Investing" by John Mauldin, pg. 238. It has a lengthy section on self deception as it applies to investing.

  metatron