A former poster on JWD needs some help

by AK - Jeff 28 Replies latest jw experiences

  • Snoozy
    Snoozy

    I know that the Knapp person started posting and advertising his site on XJW boards but has anyone checked his credentials?.

    An owner of another board refused to post his link because of a problem when researching him..

    Just be careful..find a way to check him out first.

    Snoozy..

    ps..He explained to this other board owner that he was just trying to find out more about Jehovah's witnesses..then later he posted his website. This board owner decided that this person should really know something about the Jehovah's witnesses before he offers to help them for money..and deleted the link to that persons site. I believe he has also been banned.

  • Uzzah
    Uzzah

    The subconscious is a strange thing. I applaud the efforts to seek professional help.

    I have been out for over 10 years but still have dreams about my Bethel life and bethel contacts. My former room mate figured largely in a dream I had last night sitting there sharing a beer with me as othe revents unveiled and I ended up pretending I was still a JW in the dream. I couldn't be more out but yet this dream happened.

    I have come to realize that 33 years as part of the BORG is not just going to disappear and will appear randomly in dreams. It is part of who I am and what led me to be who I am and what I believe. Ignoring this is just as unhealthy as being a part of it.

    I have stopped being unnerved by such dreams and have come to realize it is simply a reflection of my past being reflected in dreams. It is normal and nothing to worry about.

    Would a dream about high school friends unnerve you? If not then why would dreams about JW friends or lifestyles freak you out? Our past is our past. It will resurface in dreams on occasion.

    Uzzah

  • sass_my_frass
    sass_my_frass

    I still dream about old JW friends and family sometimes. Nowhere near as bad as this guy I think. He could probably go to any cult counsellor though; same issues everywhere.

  • oompa
    oompa

    There is a good one is winston salem/greensboro, nc.......janet nester...or nestor...google it.....she does it by phone too........oompa

  • Alleymom
    Alleymom

    A slightly different approach ----

    After being in a bad accident 4 years ago, I have become a big fan of acupuncture (I use a 5 element acupuncturist who has her master's from Tai Sophia and is also nationally certified) and have found that it can help tremendously with emotional as well as physical issues.

    Your friend might find acupuncture to be a useful adjunct to therapy and counseling, or it might even provide sufficient relief by itself.

    Insurance coverage varies, but my plan pays for 20 visits per year.

    Just a thought ...

  • LouBelle
    LouBelle

    sometimes dreams are a good way for your mind to work things out. And when you wake up you can always analyse it and remember - it was a dream. It's good for your friend to find a neutral source to talk too. I was fortunate enough to find someone (now a friend) that wasn't a witness but has done enough research on them to understand me, and give an opinion that is not based on being a JW. It was eye opening.

  • rebel8
    rebel8

    Possible therapists

    Possible online ex-cult support group facilitated by a therapist

    Other possible assistance

    This person's health insurance may partially cover the cost of professional treatment. He or she may also have an Employee Assistance Program.

    (( ))

  • compound complex
    compound complex

    Good Mornng, Jeff:

    Best wishes to your friend and an eventual, if not speedy, recovery.

    I imagine these nightmares are fairly common.

    My early morning's bad dream (I went to bed at 1:30 a.m.) involved a study of The Watchtower, in preparation for field service. I was going over talking points with one of my grown kids and a woman supposedly my child's mother and my wife (I believe I recognized her). Trying to tell them it was not the truth must have sent me into a conflict of emotions. Running off in play clothes, dancing and singing, I ended up in a beautiful, sunny apartment to which a lovely person, enchanted by my singing, had followed me ...

    Glad I awoke.

    CoCo in Conflict

  • purplesofa
    purplesofa

    The Seven Levels of Dream Time
    and How They Direct Your Life

    by Diandra


    Uniquely designed for our benefit, dreams offer a treasure of discoveries

    The dream state is a very individualized state of consciousness containing seven levels, all uniquely designed by humanity for its benefit. Let's take a look at what happens to us in the dream state.

    First Level
    When you enter into your dream state, it is often a time that you process information which you do not have the time to process in your waking existence. Many times, this is all you are doing - simply processing information. Once the information is processed, you place it into your daily understanding and your daily life.

    Second Level
    When you go into a dream state that says, "I have processed, but I do not understand," it is a time that you can begin to integrate your understanding at a much more rapid pace than when you are in a conscious, awake state.

    In your dream state, you have the capacity to isolate what would be distracting to you. Now, you don't always do that, but you have the capacity to do it. Oftentimes, not only are you are processing, but you are understanding what you have processed.

    Third Level
    The third level of the dream state is when you choose to interact with others. You are not interacting on the astral level, but are partaking of an emotional exchange that you cannot do on a conscious level when you are awake.

    You choose to interact in this dream state because it is a little bit safer than in the waking state. You’re not having to look at that physical person. You're not having to interact with those who are going to be threatening. It's a rather safe time for you. Why do you feel it is so safe for you to interact in your dream time? The reason you feel so safe on these levels of consciousness is because it is you who designed the dream time.

    Sleep was designed to allow time for you to disconnect from everything you have entangled yourself in, to look at it again and perhaps say, "Oh, my goodness, this is a monster over here!" Maybe the monster is going to be a wild animal in this dream that you have created. You realize, "Wow, I have to look at what I created!"

    You know you're very safe in analyzing and experiencing during your dreams, even if it is a nightmare that you will wake up from. You may be frightened for a short time, but you recognize you truly were safe. Had you gone into the cage with the tiger when you were awake, it's reasonable to conclude that it may have eaten your body. In the dream, of course, the tiger did not literally eat your body. Dream time is an extremely safe time of processing for you, and being unconsciously aware of this, what you will not allow in your awake time, you allow in your sleeping dream time.

    Fourth Level
    The fourth level of dream state is the play state, what you consider your out-of-body experiences, those times when you have been out in the universe. You know you've been somewhere during the night, but you don't quite know where.

    You may have traveled throughout the universe, but it's not a serious thing. It's sort of a satisfying of the mind. The body can't get there, but your mind can in your dream state. Some have very vivid recollections of this and others do not. You will think it was a dream. Sometimes you will say, "I know I was there," or you will be awakened and say, "I don't know where I was, but I wasn't here," or you'll feel the "jolt" when you re-enter into your conscious state.

    That is the play area, designed as you choose to design it. If you want to put monsters in your play area, you are free to do so. If you want to put those that have beauty and light there, that's what you'll do. It is your play area. You are in control of what you put in it.

    This is a very healthy state of being for you, and I encourage you to use it. It is a process of release, of creativity and of lightness. It is where your nightmares will take place as well. You often drift from the third level to the fourth level, back and forth.

    Fifth Level
    When you enter the fifth level of dreaming, you take on an aspect of learning. It is truly a time when you are allowing yourself to connect with the higher part of yourself. You will be in school, and this school will be defined for you in many different ways. You may have the sense that you have been in a classroom setting where you are truly learning, or this learning may not be in the usual classroom setting. What you learn here is not a remembering, it is a learning process. You are learning on all levels as compared to just learning on the conscious mind level.

    The state of consciousness you call sleep allows freedom. Do not deprive your soul of the resource of sleep and dream time.

    All parts of you are choosing to learn. In those schools of learning, you may bring back to your consciousness perhaps one or two of the ten things you learned. The rest is going into all that you are in many other universes and many other dimensions. This occurs because everything is happens simultaneously with responses and connections in all sources. What you're learning, you're not just learning for here, but you're learning for perhaps twenty universes away in your existence there as well.

    Now, that learning may be an entirely different application of what you've learned than what you are going to bring back here. This is what you're doing when you think you've been in school. Have you ever wakened in the morning really tired? This happens because for much of the night, your mind kept processing and processing. You are learning this new information.

    Sixth Level
    When you move to the sixth level of your dream state, you are beginning to determine what that learning means, how it elevates you spiritually, where this is taking you, and what your soul path is in all of this awareness. (When I say the word "soul," I do not restrict the soul's existence to the planet. Please understand, I would never restrict such a great part of who you are to this planet alone.)

    You begin to process and integrate this learning during your sixth level of dream state. "How does Planet Z fit with Planet A in this? And, How does Individual B that I am so connected with out there, help me to connect here?" or, "I'm still connected here, but I'm not connected there. We need to be connected there because we have great work to do over here, but somehow we got so scattered and so far away. How does this happen?" You see, they too will be learning, so how do you bring it together?

    Seventh Level
    It's likely that while you can talk about Level Seven, you'll never truly understand it because it's totally spiritual. It is what sustains your life or existence. It is what brings to you the substance, the essence and all that you are.

    What Else is Going On?
    Dream time is that inner action where you have an awareness that something is taking place. But, what's going on with you during the rest of your sleep time? This is where a great deal of the power of your existence takes place; you are making some very fundamental choices and decisions that you refuse to make when you’re awake.

    Have you ever woke up in the morning and suddenly said, "Oh, I want to do this!" or "I have the answer to this!" Well, how did you wake up knowing this?

    Do you know why you allow yourself to know? It’s because you feel safe in the dream state. In the daytime, when you’re interacting with so many other life forms that you feel could be threatening to you, you’re so busy defending or attacking that you don’t feel safe enough to do the things that you do in your sleep time.

    The state of consciousness you call sleep allows freedom. You often escape there for your direction in life. During sleep, dream time is allowed to be. Do not deprive your soul of the resource of sleep and dream time. It is of great benefit to your experience on Earth.

  • jws
    jws

    A lot of dreams I can't remember, but very seldom do I have any dreams about my old JW life. I was born and raised in it and left at around 24 and that was 18 years ago. Of course I may have never really been too attached to it in the first place.

    I'm no therapist, but maybe there are feelings of guilt about leaving. Subconscious feelings that you are outside of the "truth" and need to go back. Maybe your dreams are expressing this. Placing you back where you think you need to be. I don't know about dreams, but my niece had feelings of needing to go back. She had left to marry a "worldly" guy and had not gone to meeting in years. Yet with help from her mother, she felt as if she was missing out on something. Like the JWs really were the true religion and she needed to get back to it.

    I think the best recipe for her was talking to people like me about it. I also sent her a copy of Crisis of Conscience by Ray Franz. She proved to herself that the JWs aren't what they claimed to be and she owes them nothing. They are not the ones to return to. She feels free from all of that now and much more comfortable with her life.

    Boards like this, among other ex-JWs, are also great for some people. You can make new online friends. You can be part of a community of other people like you. You can see that you're not alone. You can see what others went through that may be similar to what you're going through. You can also ask questions about things bothering you or on your mind and discuss it openly and honestly. And you can even reminisce about your JW days if you want. This board can be very therapeutic.

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