I have been absent much for almost a year, reading, learning and breaking out of boxes, figuratively. I'm hoping that sharing some thoughts and asking some questions might be fun, and maybe helpful for a few. Have you wondered how two people can look at the same information, go through the same experience as you, perhaps even be party to the same conversation yet come away with an entirely different perception? It used to bug me to death. I often reacted by becoming obsessed with "helping" that person see things as I saw them. Do you remember, or still experience, the frustration? They simply see things differently, but how? Who is right? "Surely it's not me who is wrong". Why can't they see it"? "They just don't get it". Right? But were we not the one who "just didn't get it" when we were JW's? So what was that about? Why could we not see what we now see so clearly? Those of us who REALLY believed it and were experts at defending our beloved JW teachings, are especially guilty of not 'getting it'. What happened since then that we now have a totally different, sometimes opposite, viewpoint. Was it only the opportunity to learn the truth about the truth? That certainly had something to do with it, given the WT's attempts to shield us from this information. But even when we had the opportunity we didn't jump on it immediately, did we? Didn't we resist, maybe even now, still resisting as we hang onto a few cherished beliefs? Growing is a big part of what life is about and our JW experience certainly has caused us to grow. If we can identify what was impeding us from "getting it" back then we may prevent any remnants of that obstacle from impeding us from future growth. It has to do with paradigms, world views, or closer to the foundational cause, levels of consciousness. By "levels" I don't mean to imply we were semi-unconscious while loyal JW's. But our ability to see the big picture, a broader view, was limited by our level of awareness. The data (information) we had, what was given us, was seen only through the narrow vision we had at the time. However, we eventually got brave enough we allowed ourselves to back away and see it all from a different perspective. We began to trust ourselves enough to assess our belief system RATIONALLY. Oh, yeah, that was forbidden. But we applied reason to the data and a whole new perspective resulted. Yes we got angry and hurt as a result because this sudden new view of our world drew us to a single and depressing realization: WE HAD BEEN DUPED! According to relatively new studies in Consciousness, what we experienced was more than new information about the Watchtower. It was more than a paradigm shift.
We were emerging into a new level of consciousness.
We were emerging from what Jim Marion, in his book Death of the Mythic God, calls the mythic level of consciousness. Because we have arrived at this new perspective by assessing our belief system rationally, we have entered what he and philosopher Ken Wilber call the rational level of consciousness. While this state of consciousness is not actually above the others, it includes all other levels of consciousness preceding it. But the rational level has its limitations too. Concluding we now see everything clearly because we are more rational can itself become an obstacle to further growth. Can you relate to this topic? Do you want go further with it? jst2laws