Anonymity and Mind Control

by Ding 13 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Ding

  Ted Dencher wrote a book in 1966 entitled, "Why I Left Jehovah's Witnesses."

  One of his chapters is entitled: "Effect of Anonymity on the Mind."

  He points out that the WTS goes out of its way to take away JWs' individual identities:

  -- You become "one of Jehovah's Witnesses," part of a "great crowd" of "other sheep."

  -- You do not seek a personal relationship with Jesus because he is an archangel

  -- You don't seek a new birth (John 3:3); instead you join "Jehovah's organization" and become a "publisher"

  -- Your witnessing follows a strictly controlled progression of indoctrination in WT literature

  -- You don't know who writes the WT publications because they don't give their names

  -- You know very little -- if anything -- about the Governing Body, their backgrounds, or credentials

  -- You aren't told who translated the "New World Translation" or allowed to inspect their linguistic credentials

  -- Individuality and individual acheivement is viewed as "divisiveness," "worldliness," and "selfish ambition"

  -- You don't decide what the Bible means; the anonymous "faithful and discreet slave" tells you what you are to think and when you are to think it

  Dencher says: "The effect all of this can have on a man's mind is startling... all faith in the individual Christ is gone... Businesslike methods are used for everything, and all is run on a production-line basis. All work for a salvation that never comes or is attained. Figures and statistics are kept on everything... Those not producing sufficiently are removed from their positions of authority or even purged. God is viewed as an organization-god with a tally sheet covered with statistics and figures on business matters. He is never satisfied. Criticism of everything except the organization is encouraged. Everything else is mocked by them... To many dictators in the form of servants, running other people's lives and butting into your business instead of minding their own. Constantly finding fault while maintaining that they were faultless."

  He summarizes: "An organization of this type just does NOT fit in with Biblical Christianity. That wasn't what Jesus Christ brought to our earth -- not by a long shot! He brought something far better and finer and holier than that! He brought eternal redemption, and I was going to seek it... I reviewed the time I had spent within the organization. Ten years of all kinds of work -- mental and physical -- and for what? Now I could see the futility of it all! I saw Jehovah's Witnesses come and go. They went as they came -- unsaved. What had they gained? Nothing."

  "This whole idea of working for salvation was anti-Saviour (read Romans, chapter four). It was opposed to salvation full and free. We did NOT have the freedom of the sons of God! We were sold into slavery to the Watch Tower Society!"
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  Lunatic Faith

  Thanks for sharing Ding! The damage of conformity and anonymity occurred to me not too long ago. It was my own mental health that finally forced me to reconsider further association. But last years District Convention drove this point home when one of the speakers criticized "the friends" for "making God's of their bellies" by seeking individuality and leaving the WTS to "find themselves". He spoke about the importance of bringing our minds in line with Jahs organization and perfectly adhering to its requirements like humble sheep. Not allowing ourselves to think too highly of ourselves, but humbly submitting to "direction".

  I felt like someone had slapped me across the face. I had heard that stuff all my life and did my best to adhere to it. But now I realized that was why I was screwed up--and not me only but the vast majority of JW's have no self esteem and are convinced their salvation rests upon submission to the collective. The term "sheep" was no longer a loving term but one of subjection and humiliation. That was the last time I have been to a JW gathering.
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  darth frosty

  Good points thx!
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  clarity

  Ding, excellent ...thank you so much for posting this. I never would have found it!

  Btw, where did you come across it?

  clarity
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  LongHairGal

  DING:

  They absolutely do try to take away your individual identity. This is what they call stripping off the 'old personality' and putting on the 'new'. They would have you believe it is only about getting rid of your bad habits and learning good ones but it is not. It is a little more sinister than this. It is about trying to make the indivudal feel that they are nothing.

  This mind control goes even further than this and this is dangerous: they would have you deny your sense of danger, that was put in our brains by the creator.

  LUNATIC FAITH:

  Your eyes were opened right then and there and nothing would ever be the same again. Your observation is also correct that many JWs have no self-esteem. I wasn't raised in the religion but came in as a young adult. I didn't entirely 'buy' it all. Having come from a dysfunctional family, I built-up my self-esteem little by little. I certainly was not going to let a bunch of inferior-minded people (with their own agenda) tear it down.

  So, a little over ten years ago I left the religion (with my self-esteem intact) and started a 'fade'. It was a lesson learned for me.
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  Crisis of Conscience

  Thanks Ding!! This hits the nail right on the head!

  CoC
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  edmond dantes

  It's unbelievable in this day and age that people still fall for the Watchtower mind control method madness. It must be because people do not realise until it's too late just what they are letting themselves in for.

  It is as if the book 1984 had never been written. Maybe a new version should be written called Big Momma is watching you.
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  Mad Sweeney

  Maybe a new version should be written

  I'm working on it. Give me at least another year, though.
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  flipper

  DING- Good thread. Thanks for posting. Not only do they try to take away your individuality and personality- the WT society attempts to remove normal human empathy, feelings, & emotions from it's JW members. That's why it's relatively easy for some Witnesses to shun non-witness family members or those who leave the Witnesses because they are programmed to be de-sensitized and have no emotion. Just likecold steel robots. Very disturbing. Many cults do this to members
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  sizemik

  The damage of conformity and anonymity occurred to me not too long ago. It was my own mental health that finally forced me to reconsider further association.

  Ditto for me Lunatic faith . . . I read an article some time ago that the "damage" to mental health is mostly inflicted during the indoctrination process . . . it can take some years (and further damage) before it begins to create problems. But it is the "stripping away" of individuality that causes the greatest harm.

  Luvonyall - MS