Jgnat
Charilko, because your experience is so fresh, did you notice that the first couple studies are focused on trusting the bible implicitly, and by day three, *BLAM* beware of Satan/opposition from family members. This becomes self-confirming as alarmed loved-ones begin to notice your change. A little switch goes off in your brain, *SATAN!* they were *RIGHT!*
Yes, I noticed it. In the course of the study, those early chapters took for ever, because at that point my analytical critical intellect was not dulled, and I argued every step of the way, pointing out each manipulation and illogical anomaly to my study conductors.
It's a mystery to me now why I continued with the study, but that's looking back on it. What made the difference was that I was going to the KH, and was bowled over by the ...apparent...warmth and "genuine" love I found there. And this was because I'd been deeply involved in my own church which had undergone an appalling scandal and I was reeling from shock. (Many others were too and reacted variously but I was the one that the JW's caught in that unguarded moment.)
The extraordinary thing was that all the time, throughout, I never stopped observing with part of my mind the manipulation and false logic of the WT process, and yet, somehow, after about 6 months, it was as though my brain flipped and got totally suckered in, so that I actually saw the faithful and discreet slave as representing God and was ready to jump through hoops and alter my whole life just because they said so.
I posted several days ago on a thread (not begun by me) that gained no popularity at all and I think has foundered into obscurity. That thread suggested the evidently worn-out existence of manipulative false images inserted into WT illustrations, and cited a clear face on the front of the Bearing Thorough Witness book.
I was and am saying neither yea nor nay on this subject, but my factual observations of myself and what happened are here. You can see that I am well able to think, analyse, and readily detect BS. I was offered that book when I was clearly experiencing considerable cognitive dissonance, still largely firmly believing the doctrines of my church and yet strangely...(I'll change that to VERY strangely)...drawn to JW thinking. I was researching as much as I could about the early development and spread of Christinaity, trying to see just why the JW's believed certain things.
I opened that book hesitantly, was interested in the apparent wealth of detail, actively noticed and disliked the constant mix of apparent historical/Biblical fact with modern JW proselytising, but despite noticing immediately the face in the clouds I perused the pictures, got interested in the detail, and over and over again went back to them. I devoured the book and went back to it for a second and third reading, in effect using passages almost as meditation.I kept going back to the pictures again and again, gazing at them and allowing my imagination to wander around the scenes portrayed. Can't explain it. That's what happened.
In that thread I did suggest that those pictures might indeed have a psychological effect beyond what was obvious. The thought met with disfavour, and I abandoned it, and kept my thoughts to myself. However, that's what happened, and I am the person you see me to be, and the very last person anyone who knows me well would ever have thought would be taken in by anything, although it is true that I was vulnerable at that point. Once I'd begun reading that book, I was hooked and in a different mindset from before.
Going back to your original question on the Bible Teach study book, which we plodded through at a snail's pace until just a very few months ago, yes, I noticed all the manipulation all the way through at all times, BUT...and here's the thing...after I'd read only a bit of the Bearing Thorough Witness book I actually accepted it all, totally forgetting the maxim that I knew well, that the end never justifies the means, and I became outwardly and even to myself an apparently humble convert, content to "learn" at a level and pace scarcely beyond that of kindergarten.
Was I somehow swayed by something in those images? Improbable though it seems to most people and to myself, I am not at all sure that I wasn't, at least in part...and that was even while I was aware of the possibility! I'd thought my mind was very strong indeed. But I was duped by the indoctrination process, whether by text or picture and the love-bombing that went on, and yes...unbelievable though it seems to my rational self, absolutely, disgracefully...I was throughly BRAINWASHED!
Rotten JW's! I'm still not totally clear of it. I met by chance a JW today, who, all smiles, "missed" me and hoped she'd see me at the meeting tonight. Did I say, "Not likely!" and run? I did not. I merely hedged and said "We'll see."
Pathetic.
I described this encounter to my youngest daughter later and got roundly scolded for being a wimp! So you see, though I may sound on here as though I've seen the light I really don't feel as if I am fully clear yet and I know I'm in a lull as the elders are giving me a couple of weeks' grace to recover from my experience with the possessive sister.
