You will never overcome your Witness past...

by JimmyPage 42 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  JimmyPage

  ... unless you read apostate views.

  You may become inactive, like I did, and find a way to assimilate yourself into the normal world.

  But you will always have at your core a view of the world that the Witnesses gave you. Their basic teachings will still be your world view.

  You will never realize you were indoctrinated by a cult.

  For those poisoned by Jehovah's Witnesses there is only one antidote.

  There is only one way to understand your life and progress from there.

  The only true cure for Jehovah's Witnesses is apostasy.
• 

  Mysterious

  Apostate views are not the only way to go about it. There are books, movies, work, university, worldly friends etc.
• 

  JimmyPage

  I had worldly friends. I took classes. I saw movies. I went to work. Nothing opened my eyes like apostasy. The worldly friends don't understand your upbringing. Your indoctrination can deflect opposing views from movies and workmates. Real progress can only be made by understanding the true nature of the WTBTS. And to open your mind to that means apostasy.
• 

  beksbks

  I agree Jimmy. Unfortunately even that won't give you the ability to dig it all out of your very makeup if you were raised JW. You will always find yourself struggling to find the tools to live life as a "normal" human being. At best we can learn to recognize those moments and move forward.
• 

  justhuman

  "Apostate" it is just a thought the WT using against anyone who starts to use the gift by God called brain...

  I have seen many ex-jw's that despite the fact they left WT, still they hold the foundamental doctrines of the WT:

  1.Trinity

  2.Soul

  3.Hell

  4.Armageddon

  5.Resurrection

  6.Ransom

  7.Two class Christians

  There is only one way to overcome that past and that is examination.Since all of JW are programed to avoid critical examination of the WT, and although they might be in the world for years, they never think to examine their theological inheritence.
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  nameless_one

  I fully agree. In JW-land the term "apostasy" encompasses so very much, so I'm not sure that's the way I would have worded it exactly, but I think the idea behind what you're saying is dead on.
  
  In dealing with my own JW, and his journey away from the WTS, it has become crystal clear to me that one can live under the illusion of wandering far and wide but still be strangling on a very tight leash. Over time I have become absolutely convinced that the only way to become truly free is to pull back the curtain, shine a bright light, and examine what's there, painful as it is. Until one actually SEES with his own eyes the little man behind the big curtain, and the mundane mechanics of the magical machines, the spell won't truly be broken.
  
  Good post JimmyPage, thanks.
• 

  paybacktime19

  very true
• 

  WTWizard

  Apostate views are extremely helpful. Even with the "secret" society (that preaches fully integrated thinking), you can only integrate what you see. And without knowing the inside secrets of the cult, you will always wonder if they might have been at least sincere.

  It is a very powerful tool--once you read an apostate site and have even a limited degree of fully integrated thinking, you are probably never going to want to go back.
• 

  jgnat

  I'd rather go along with this:

  There is only one way to overcome that past and that is examination

  As someone who had to overcome a different sort of twisted past (narcicisst mom, violent ex-husband), I think it is healthier to embrace the past as part of myself. I don't deny it or try to run from it. I am the sum of everything that has happened to me. The positive results from that sort of past is that I have a higher degree of compassion and understanding than the average she-bear. I've given my own soul a good scrubbing-over, and recognized the seeds of that same behavior in myself (thus avoiding that terrible path).

  I also spot manipulators at twenty paces.
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  LouBelle

  Apostacy is to recant your former beliefs - therefore yes I agree with you, otherwise you'll always have that belief that they aren't so bad, they may have the truth, that niggling at the back of your mind. You have to see the deception, process it and move on.