by Maddie 19 Replies latest social entertainment
Maddie your fear is a result of a trauma it isnt a shortcoming , You are free Jws dont firebomb houses or shoot people ( I think so lol!)
Unlearning and unknowing brings peace, The ego wants to maintain center stage and will do so at any cost to you. ie: fear and paranoia
Cults need a lot of work to pull from your mind and ego likes to keep what gives it power over your emotions. Your spirit knows the truth if only you believe what is inside you.
Dont fear maddie you gonna be ok. Look within
Maddie,
I don't think you're stupid. It just takes time for some of the effects of that constant indoctrination to wear off.
The key word in your post is "fear". That's what the WT organization is run on. It isn't run on love. If it were, you wouldn't have these fearful thoughts.
Hang in there, and always know we're here as a sounding board. We've been through the same stages, and the path out of their mental minefield isn't easy.
Hi Maddie,
This is normal, we all go through it. Its the years of conditioning coming out. Just keep reading and learning and using your right to question everything.
If you still believe in the scriptures have a look at this:-
"‘However, the prophet who presumes to speak in my name a word that I have not commanded him to speak or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die. And in case you should say in your heart: "How shall we know the word that Jehovah has not spoken?" when the prophet speaks in the name of Jehovah and the word does not occur or come true, that is the word that Jehovah did not speak. With presumptuousness the prophet spoke it. You must not get frightened at him.’ Deut 18:20-22
Regards
David.
So sorry you’re suffering Maddie. Such an unpleasant thing to suffer from.
Hope you can work it out in your mind. Terrible thing fear. Really feeling for you right now,
I have suffered those fears Maddie, and the anguish was quite something. But what has already been said, reading and reasoning, helped. Talking it out with someone who understands helped me also.
Hope this can help you too,
Best wishes and take care.
It's perfectly normal to feel that way, Maddie. I've done it - heck, I still sometimes do, although it's getting weaker.
We've all been in "an abusive relationship" - some choose to stay; we are the ones who decided to leave. But you can't expect to come out of it with absolutely no problems. We may feel we're doing fine, but then suddenly only the "voice on the phone" of the former "spouse" may be enough to trigger the fear again, even if the "spouse" is thousands of miles away and can't hurt us anymore. It's a natural, protective reaction.
But it gets better.
What's weird is, after I had 'left', I even started to fear the predictions of other idiots out there - well, not really fear I guess, but it would give me an uneasy feeling, and I would feel a sense of relief when their dates came about and nothing happened. And here I'm talking about people claiming specific dates for UFO invasions etc..... It's stupid. After a while though, you learn that it's all bull#%¤#, and nothing to be scared of.
We're like an animal that's been hurt by a fire once, and now every time it sees or even hears the sound of a fire, it will get scared. But after a while, when fire from fireplaces etc. actually don't hurt the animal, it will slowly adjust and learn that it's not dangerous after all.
OK - enough with my stupid analogies...
At one point I thought "I'll be happy on January 1st. 2013 - then I can breathe a sigh of relief." But the problem with that is that these a¤%holes will always be there, making their stupid predictions, and unfortunately they'll be with us the rest of our lives.
Best just not pay any attention to them at all, and just live our lives.
Maddie,
You have a PM.
JK
You just have to continue to deprogram yourself.
It takes time.
You'll be fine.
I've experienced that "what if" syndrome many times. But, then I sit calmly and think and realize this is part of
the intense indoctrination of a cult. I also reason that I am a good person. I try to be loving and kind to others,
I try to be the best mom and wife I can be, I try not to lie, cheat, or covet. I certainly don't steal or murder or
do blatantly "sinful" things. I'm imperfect but not wicked. If the "what if" is real, then I trust whoever judges
the heart will know what He's doing. And, besides that, it's like I told my nephew one time: If JWs have the
truth and Armageddon comes and destroys all but them, well, I won't be there in the New World because I'm
never going to be a JW again and I wouldn't want to live forever with a bunch of JWs anyway!
Maddie, get on with your life and stop worrying. It's a waste of time and energy. Be happy, dear. If it makes
you feel better, lay everything out to your Father in prayer. Tell Him what you're thinking and feeling, then sit
back and "listen" and I feel certain you will find comfort and peace.
Maddie, I get those "flash backs" once in a while but the way I see it, just like some one mentioned, we were victims of a sort of trauma, it takes a while to get rid of all the side affects.
Hi Maddie and others,
Hope you're making progress and feeling less fear now.
On an intellectual level I have no worries about what the society says; Armageddon itself creates the same level of fear in me as does being invaded by aliens (which I now actually consider more likely, come to think of it). However, I know there will be situations in life that test me, and that may take some time for me to conquer, due to those thought patterns ingrained from childhood. That's not because I'm fearful of being judged by Yahweh; that's because I'm worried about having the feelings of guilt.
I don't know what study you've done, but I'd like to recommend a book, particularly chapter four:
How to Read the Bible: History, Prophecy, Literature - Why Modern Readers Need to Know the Difference, and What It Means for Faith Today by Steven L. McKenzie
I found it ultimately very liberating to read. It doesn't deal with Jehovah's Witnesses specifically (which only added to its power for me), but it does mention the movement that inspired their eschatology: the Millerites. It then goes on to take a few chapters from Daniel and Revelation and explain why they were written, and what they actually mean. I've since spent a lot of time studying Daniel and Revelation with a view to their social contexts, and taking the positive action to learn about them properly has meant that the idea of them having anything to do with our time in a literal way is now completely ludicrous to me. The interpretations in the relevant WT books are then seen as the contrived nonsense they are, and other bible doomsday prophets are seen to be the same.
The book doesn't decry all faith, but it does negate certain erroneous applications of literature. Can't recommend it enough, and it was certainly time well spent for me.
If you want recommendations on commentaries which deal with Daniel and Revelation specifically that I also found helpful, just say.
