What's it like? (page 2)

Inquisitor

Man, your tag is quite a mouthful! lol.

What was my Big Dip like? Well I was very happy, my folks and my friends were proud of me. Baptism is a joyous occasion for most people. No I was not hysterical. It just happened really. No dramas.

I was not coerced by anyone to get baptized, though I was encouraged to think seriously about it. Nudging me in that direction was a good thing. It made me investigate the Truth. Though my conviction was based on false and incomplete information, my resolve was genuine. That same fierce determination for truth eventually led to my ultimate rejection of this organization as a source of truth.

I have no reservations thinking of that day. But that may have something to do with the fact that I have not invested decades of my life into this religion. I guess I should count myself fortunate. I also have no reservations because my baptism was not the moment I lost my intellectual might to the WTS. I had willingly given it over to them way before. Reflecting on my baptism does not send chills up my spine, thankfully.

INQ

OUTLAW

Join our religion or Die!..It`s like a loaded gun pressed to your head...OUTLAW

OnTheWayOut

I thought it was a great day then, what I really wanted to do. Nowadays, I prefer not to talk about it much, it's a day I'd rather forget. It led to me wasting half of my life in a cult.

I side with fullofdoubtnow. I had a sense of euphoria. "This is really what I should be doing." Now that I know how ignorant I was

to be misled, I prefer to not try to bring back the memory of how good I felt while doing such a stupid thing.

Nowman

I was 15. I was baptized at Sportman Park in Chicago, when I stepped on the ladder to the pool, I saw my dad! It was a surprise! He was going to baptize me. I was so excited. My parents bought me a new outfit, it was 1989, so I had this sundress that was hot pink and white polka-dotted. I had these cool white flats on that had ties, where you tie up the ankle and calve. I thought I was sooooo cool! I do not remember how I felt about the org, but I was very excited to wear my new outfit.

My being baptized was also to make my parents happy. That is basically how I did everything in those days.

Nikki

evita

I have a pic of me, my mom, and a friend right after my baptism. We are all red-eyed from crying. I was 15 and it was a very emotional and exciting time. For the first time in a long time, everyone was happy with me and I got a lot of attention. Did I believe it was the "truth". I wasn't thinking very deeply at that point. I was just trying to get through my teen years the best I could.

garybuss

I was scared. I was 12. We were at the district assembly in Denver and it was huge. The baptism victims were isolated from the other convention people. That meant I was separated from my parents.

Due to Jehovah's good intervention and the hard work of the assembly volunteers nobody could locate a swimming pool in all of Denver Colorado in 1957, so the baptism was held at a motel swimming pool in Idaho Springs.

I was loaded into a car with 5 adult people I had never seen before and off we went to Idaho Springs. My parents were confused (not an unusual condition for them), and I never saw them at Idaho Springs, though I understand they were there (likely after I left). I got the ritual bath and found the car club I rode up with and assumed the sardine position for the ride down the hill.

The guy driving the car wanted to make a side trip up the hill and take a tourist nature viewing route back and so I got to sit between two smelly Witnesses for an extra hour ride back to the ball park where blessings printed on pulp paper were still being read to the numb butt Witnesses who sat in the wood seats all day.

I finally found my parents who in all their good planning had neglected to decide on a pre-arranged meet up place in case we got separated. All in all, it was a sucky day for me.

4JWY

I've never done it, but it seems like it would be a real head f-!

You said it -

....... and it f@$ks with your head for a long time thereafter.

crazyblondeb

I thought "Now my mom and dad will get off my back!"

that, and the elders!

shelley

GentlyFeral

bubble,

I felt numb the whole way through, before, during and after.
This is because I was doing it only to keep my family happy.

Huh. I was doing it for Jehovah, reeeely I was, and I was serenely joyful for the days leading up to it, excited before and immediately afterwards, but on the way back to the assembly ... I felt numb too.

I told myself it was the shock of starting a whole new life, 'cause I was also getting married the next day. That one worked out much better, even if I did pace up and down in the back room of the Kingdom Hall in my wedding dress, asking myself, "Why am I doing this?" 33 years & counting.

gently feral

misspeaches

Maybe there was something wrong with me??

I was expecting to have some sort of epiphany (spelling?) and was sadly disappointed.

What do I remember most?

BEFORE HAND : The girls fighting over who had to get dunked first. We were all acutely embarrassed by having to parade ourselves around in swimwear whilst the audience are all in their assembly clothes

AFTER WARDS : My 'friend' giving me a serving because I thought I was too good for her now. I had many 'well wishers' approach me afterwards to congratulate me on the dunking. I didn't have time to eat my lunch let alone socialise.

SUMMATION : The experience of my baptism was pretty much the same as my entire experience as a JW. Disappointing.

What's it like?

Share this