Freaking out a Jehovah's Witness

by jgnat 44 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  jgnat

  A note about cognitive dissonance. If you make your point, drive it home. From what I read if you go soft after the challenge the person will grab on to any reason to hang on to their former belief, and the end result they will be stronger in their delusion. I know this sounds contrary to my usual advice. (softly softly catchee monkey) but maybe an analogy from the martial arts will help.

  When the cultist side is alert to a threat, be soft and neutral in your answer. This is like the duck and weave in boxing, or the step back in martial arts. Later when you introduce disconfirming information, kindly leave no wiggle room. Drive it home. One-two-knockout.
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  exWTslave

  jgnat - thanks for this post – it can work with some! At last you have made it! Enjoy your a real reunion.
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  Watchtower-Free

  Jehovah's Witnesses Life is getting better for humans- Population
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmQL3GTO128
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  jgnat

  exWTslave, as you know, my goal for exiting witnesses who have a life partner at their side, is if at all possible, they exit together. It sure is a lot easier, if you are going through a life-transforming exercise, that the person you trust the most in the world is backing you up. It makes the whole transition that much kinder.

  Besides, if you have children together, you are in a sense joined at the hip anyways.

  I figure if I give a whole bunch of tips, techniques, and tools at your disposal, you can give it your best shot.
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  jgnat

  Thanks, Watchtower-Free! That's my buddy, Hans Rosling!
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  ABibleStudent

  When a JW feels cognitive dissonance, s/he probably will recite a thought-stopping platitude to reduce it. Learning how to overcome thought-stopping platitudes may help empower the authentic persona of a JW. At least it is better than agreeing with a JW or saying nothing.

  Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,

  Robert
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  jgnat

  Can you give some examples of overcoming the platitiudes, ABibleStudent? Off the top of my head, I'd try to appeal to their empathy, get them thinking outside themselves. As in, "Really? Put yourself in our neighbour's shoes for a moment. Do you think that Harry is hopelessly condemned?"
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  Stirred

  A couple months ago in a meeting, the speaker was speaking about the signs. I decided to look up some stats online in meeting to provide answer for my kids and I from worldly stats......i couldn't answer point I had in mind. That incident made me make note to check further And I did on one stat. I have limited time.

  I appreciate the working list and find it would be even more useful if sources were quoted for reference.
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  besty

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/Search?cx=partner-pub-4963413421914369%3Ag5in7s-4bz3&cof=FORID%3A10&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=ray+kurzweil&sa=Search&siteurl=www.jehovahs-witness.net%2FSearch&ref=www.jehovahs-witness.net%2FSearch&ss=2856j843236j12
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  Vidiot

  The last time my loyal JW mom brought up the "time we're living in is the worst it's ever been" meme, I asked her (nicely, of course), "Well, what would you prefer? The Old West? The Middle Ages?"