How can one understand unusual personal experiences such as when going from door-to-door?

by Fernando 18 Replies latest jw experiences

  • Fernando
    Fernando

    Thank you all for your help in putting this into perspective...

    Plenty of food for thought.

    Thanks for the link Oubliette. To answer your question: on the first occasion I had not passed the KH before moving in - it was around the corner. On the next occasion I moved in directly opposite the unmarked rear entrance of the KH (with only a narrow road in between).

    Humbled, I have thought the same. It seems that experiencing the apostate supremacist legalism of the Watchtower has created a powerful and useful contrast to faith (in the gospel of grace) for me too.

  • iCeltic
    iCeltic

    What Phizzy said.

  • running_away
    running_away

    You are conting ONLY what you want to count..

    If you move 100 times AND all times you front door is in exactly 15 metters to your seat in a kigndom hall, then it should mean something.

    If not.. you are just looking at what you want to look.

    Confirmation Bias.

  • Seraphim23
    Seraphim23

    There is no doubt in my mind, even with a heavy dose of critical thinking that the mysterious does happen. In my study of this subject of such things happening to people of different faiths, one thing sticks out as being relevant more than anything else and it is belief. Not belief in the theological do`s and dont`s of any creed but mere belief that things can happen apart from the scientific paradigm. There is an interesting scripture regarding Jesus not being able to do many miracles due to the lack of belief of those in the particular place he was visiting, as if such miracles were not just done through Jesus but through something about those to whom it happened. It may help to explain why some never seem to experience anything along the mysterious lines because they don’t believe in anything.

    So the question is of course, what or who is causing such things and why? People who come back from near death experiences sometimes say that if they asked which religion is the true one? that the answer was none of them are the true one. So one could reason that faith or mere belief in the impossible is the things that counts and allows for a connection to be made no matter who or what faith the person is in. The reason would be I guess that love unites but religions and much else separates. I could go on but the whole things is very interesting.

  • rawe
    rawe

    Hi Fernando,

    "After an unusual series of many "co-incidences" on a particular Sunday, my friend and I ended up at the door of someone who had been praying to God for someone to be sent to him, and who was expecting us." The first obvious thing is you and your friend were at the house of a random stranger was because you were at the time one of Jehovah's Witnesses and going to door-to-door is a feature of that faith. The likely reason the person was praying is most people on earth are religious and believe prayer can be heard and acted upon by a superbeing most people call God (or Christ, Alla, Shiva, Mother Mary, etc.) Another part of the puzzle is how these two events got connected. Since both are rooted in religious feelings it makes sense a person of faith motivated to preach door-to-door, would be a good audience for the person saying the prayer. The seemingly profound nature of this event would help insure it gets remembered and repeated.

    "I am still convinced it was by divine intervention, but cannot understand why a prayer is answered by sending representatives of an apostate organisation."

    This strikes me as a possible, even subconsious thought, you may have that Jehovah's Witnesses in some way are connected to a divine work. Even when we can logically process aspects of the faith and label them corrupt, dishonest and evil, there may still be a lingering warmth for some aspects of the faith. Indeed, not everything about the faith was awful, right? Thus part of leaving the faith is trying to arrive at a rational view that encompasses the lying and dishonesty with true acts of human kindness and honest faith towards God we may have also witnessed.

    "Also when taking up residence in a foreign country, under very difficult circumstances, I twice ended up "inadvertently" moving in to homes just around the corner from the KH. On one occasion it was about a 15 metre walk from my front door right into my seat in the KH!"

    If you moved to a small area, it may be that most houses you could have moved to would be close to the Kingdom Hall. But there may have also been more subtle environmental aspects we might not be consciously aware of. For example, if you were a Witness at the time of this move, it would be natural to ask fellow Witnesses about a possible place to move. If the local Witness you talked to knew of two places one close and another further away, the local Witness might direct you to the closer one. Kingdom Halls also tend to reflect the economic status of nearby Witnesses. Hence as a general rule, Kingdom Halls are more often than not nearby homes where Witnesses would live.

    "Have you had similar experiences? How would you interpret these or similar events?"

    Actually the opposite. For several years, even going back to the events surrounding my father's death in 1991 I have been trying to keep track of feelings and events that wind up in negative hits. Conversely looking for environmental clues I did not pick up on, but probably should have. So... after I started this I've discovered that when the phone rings, probably about once or twice every two or three months I will have a feeling of dread come over me. Usually assuming my mother in her 80s may have died or have been hospitalized. Of course real events never align, but I tried to keep track of these false hits.

    When my father moved to Falkland BC, we stopped in Kamloops and walked a bit in the mall. He was soon out of breath and had to sit down. When he helped me unload, likewise he was soon winded and had to lie down. Two big clues he was having heart issues -- but I totally missed it. Most freaky of all is the day he died, the environment was ripe with clues and I missed them all. Not only had he called me the night before to directly tell me, the doctor wanted to keep him in the hospital because of heart concerns, but when he died the next day, my wife called me at work, and told me that she has some important news but would wait until I got home. She didn't want me driving right after being told of my father's death. Again... nothing, I had no clue and was completely surprised by the news.

    In regards to my father, one of the inputs was his constant references to his death. "If I make it till spring..." was one of his refrains. Since he was 49 when I was born and always in poor health, I believe my mind was primed to be dimissive of the latest health issue he was reporting.

    In the end we're faced with a stark choice in regards to a interactive superbeing who is undetectable and acts in random ways. If such a being exists, then we can know nothing, not even in principal. What we know we do know, because of our ability to measure and trust that a future measurement will yield the same results for the same dataset. When we live by the principal of "I believe what I can measure" to an extent we must then accept a fair bit of not knowing -- because many things can be hard to measure. This includes an accounting of all the inputs that resulted in your two experiences.

    Cheers,

    -Randy

  • LisaRose
    LisaRose

    I believe the stories of someone praying for answers only to have the dubs come knocking are just coincidence, especially since other religions have the same stories. The dubs knock on millions of doors, the liklyhood is that at least of few of them them will be people that were looking for answers. I also think some of the stories are exaggerated or made up. People tend to look for things like that to validate their beliefs, it's comforting to think that God does answer prayers. On the other hand, I have had a few instances of serendipity in my life, so I believe in at least the possibility that there something other than pure chance at work. I met my husband in high school, I wouldn't date him because he wasn't a dub. He accepted that, because he had a feeling we would meet up again someday. He even wrote it in my yearbook. 28 years later I accidentally ended up on classmates.com, didn't see him, but left my email. Two days later, he went there to look for me. Within a month he asked me to marry him. While I accept that it could be pure coincidence, I still can't help help but feel we're meant to be together.

  • Nambo
    Nambo

    I found God via the JWs house to house work, I also belive the JWs to be pretty much as apostate as all the other religions of Man.

    Doesnt mean Jesus cannot find his sheep anywhere they happen to be.

    Jesus said the very stones would cry out, and they are not a religion, maybe the illustration of the Kingdom of God being like a dragnet that brings in fish both suitable and unsuitable is applicable here?

    I expect Jesus finds his sheep in the Catholic church as well.

    The question will be, when Jesus does return, his Sheep will know his voice and fellow the good Shepard wherever he goes, that means they will leave thier Apostate religions, those that worship their religions will remain and not follow the good Shepard, they will not recognise his voice because they prefer the voice of the JW GB

    I expect if Satan himself was to appear at peoples doors, horns and all, the experience would make a lot of people jump into Jesus arms.

  • BluePill2
    BluePill2

    Girl scouts selling cookies WILL find someone that was lusting for cookies.

    You buy a red Ford and suddenly there is a world conspiracy going on, everybody else bought red cars, red Fords.

    My experience:

    I was 16 years old, horny and a brave Witness. One Sunday there was no one to accompany me and I went alone door-to-door. I knock on a door in a beautiful condo apartment. Usually nobody opened that door. To my surprise a good looking MILF opened the door (Ok, ok, to a horny 16 year old they are all good looking ....anyway, she only had a sheer, see-through nightgown on and was completely naked.

    I started stumbling.....aaaaand......NOPE. Nothing happened. Left with the greatest boner and a dry throat.

    No, I interpreted that as satan tempting me...or was it that she wanted to have sex and I was the answer to her "prayers"? I will never know...

  • williamhconley
    williamhconley

    With 8 million cult members knocking on doors they are bound to interrupt people sleeping, eating, watching tv, having sex and yes even praying. If anyone interprets that interruption as divine intervention then why would God bother to send cult members at your door but not hear the billions of prayers a day for cancer cure, stopping hunger, the thousands of murders and rapes that will take place that day?

    Does it make sense that god (if he exist) would send people to your door that are false prophets, deny Jesus mediatorship to all, demand blind obedience to 8 men in Brooklyn, and disfellowship members that dont believe their outrageous claims?

    We see and hear what we want. JW's tend to be superstitious

    Robert Deniro said regarding God: "if god exist, he has alot to answer for".

    William H. Conley

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