Hello again everybody ! I started a serious thread on cult mind control- so I figured I'd start a sarcastic funny thread, or serious, your choice how to explore it , on personal study ! I got so sick and tired as a witness with that expression being crammed down my throat ! " Personal Study " they told us ! Gotta do your personal study or you will wilt away spiritually !
I mean, come on, let's get real. We had the Watchtower magazine which would come in the mail 2 times per month, right ? Hell, I'd just barely get halfway done with the first issue each month and they came in the mail so damned fast they'd start piling up on me , before long I had a whole stack of 3 or 4 to read ! I could never get caught up ! I had things more important to do, uh, you know, like WORK! No wonder as witnesses we never felt good enough or " pure " enough in the Watchtower societies eyes ! No one who was a normal human being could keep that pace up ! Then we had to pre-study for the Watchtower study again after already reading it once ! ???????? Then, if that wasn't bad enough- had to study it again as a congregation ! And we all wonder why we were " cult mind controlled". Gawd ! The Watchtower people definitely had the MARKETING thing down, didn't they ? It was like watching the same crazy commercial on T.V. all the time- gets stamped in your brain- indelibly. I still have nightmares of Kingdom Melody songs going through my head at random times. Sick stuff.
Even at a young age- I started scribbling in my Orange "Paradise Regained " book out of sheer boredom at the meetings at age 5. They had such cool pictures of wild beasts, harlots,people getting killed and massacred . It kept me quiet during the meetings . And my mom and da were down with it ; until the day came when my mom saw me drawing moustaches and beards on Jesus and other pictures of people in the book ! Also drew glasses on them ; cool ! . Also drew breasts on the women in pictures and other accompanying accessories. By the time I was 8 or 9 doing this the discipline would be a bit stricter as I aged when I got caught doing this to my sacred books ! LOL! But hey ! The way I looked at it, at least I wasn't bored and I was getting somethin' out of the meetings !
So, what about you folks ? Did PERSONAL STUDY drive you over the edge too ? After awhile did you just say, oh screw it ? Or did you fry your brain over the years too much ? AS always I look forward to all your interesting, varied, and sordid comments on this subject ! Should be fun ! Peace out, Mr. Flipper
As a Witness I Hated Personal Study- How About You ?
by flipper 51 Replies latest jw friends
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flipper
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stillajwexelder
No I loved it
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flipper
STILLA - You are one sick puppy ! LOL! Peace out, Mr. Flipper
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Priest73
Personal study? Ha. I would just highlight random stuff in the WT just so it would look like I studied on Sunday.
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XOCO
as a young person yes. i mean the WT crowds out ur personal life it's like being in a rat race always trying to catch up now i say screw it. i have chemistry I women studies, college algerba and american history to worry about LOL than my "personal study"
XOCO
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Abandoned
Actually, I'm with Stilla on this one. I've always loved learning, regardless of the topic. Plus I was one of those loons mentioned in another thread who enjoys taking notes. To bring my nerdiness to an even higher level in y'alls estimation, I enjoy reading technical manuals. I read them both as a reference, looking up which part currently applies to what I'm doing, and from cover to cover.
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flipper
PRIEST 73- Yeah ! I agree. I used to do the same thing ! LOL! Sometimes I would underline the whole paragraph- just to cover my bases and say, yeah, I have the answer, see ? If anybody looked !
XOCO- I agree. I mean, we all have busy lives ya know ? And to do the amount of personal study the witnesses wanted us to was just insane ! I hope your college studies go well sis !
ABANDONED- LOL! That is funny guy ! I took notes as well at the assemblies too- but mainly to stay awake and not pass out in my seat out of boredom falling asleep ! So we were all crazy in our own way ! LOL! Peace out, Mr. Flipper -
bikerchic
Gotta do your personal study or you will wilt away spiritually !
That stuff used to bore the bejesus outa me so I had ways of making it fun. After all I realized the whole JW mentality was all for show, show up at the meetings, show you studied, show how spiritual you are, show how many hours you can put in field service, show how many studies you can get....bla,bla,bla....
So my study technique which made it fun for me was to use at least 4 colored highlight pens and mark up my literature, color coded, yellow for the A. answer orange for the B. answer, green for the scriptures and pink (oh I loved pink!) for an answer I might raise my hand and give if I felt like it or wasn't in the bathroom or outside walking the kiddo around the parking lot. It was hard work all that boring underlining! Plus it looked like I studied even if I really didn't!
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flipper
BIKERCHIC- That is funny ! The things we did as witnesses to avoid being bored to tears ! LOL! I bet with all the nice colors you used coloring up your magazine- people probably thought you were artistic or something ! But, as you say everything was about appearance ! At least the elders or the guy carrying the microphone saw you studied your lesson like a good girl ! Sick stuff ! Peace out, Mr. Flipper
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FlyingHighNow
I didn't like it because most of the writing was tedious, poorly edited as to make it nearly unreadable and boring. The deeper things? Even when I was snowed, I still thought them ludicrous. Later that helped me because it was one more brick that helped break the WT back for me.