Did an EX-JW wake you up to TTATT or did you put the effort to wake up yourself?

by John Aquila 112 Replies latest jw experiences

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  LongHairGal

  JOHN AQUILA:

  I pretty much woke myself up after the 1995 teaching on Generation. I learned a mountain of information on the Internet.

  WING COMMANDER:

  I love your honest description of the people there. You are absolutely right that they are (for the most part) worthless and gossiping vipers that are mostly takers. I did meet a few fine old timers but this caliber of person is hardly even there anymore.

  I wasn't raised in it like you were so I at least had a "normal" childhood. But, I can relate to your parents and was treated like crap by the Witnesses because I worked full-time. I'd never give these bastards anything because of this. I also would not do favors for all the users who imagined single women were there to be targeted.

  These people can go to hell and all the attitudes made it easy for me to leave. What did I have there anyway? A big fat zero. I would have been better off home watching TV.

  I can only imagine how bad things will be in the congregations when all these fired and needy bethelites finally get home!! Nobody will be passing any hat around to me!! This religion is not a place I want to be.
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  Beth Sarim

  1995 Generation Teaching was a great tipping point for me too. I was never, ever the same in the ''truth'' again. ''Badly fractured'', so to speak.
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  kairos

  The hypocrisy was so amazing in my old hall here in Napa.

  It was an endless parade of drama and power struggles, cliques and just overall meddling. Some criminal activity happened that was completely ignored by the BOE and two COs.

  It got to be where even after finally resigning as a MS after nearly 10 years I could no longer tolerate the meetings any longer. Sometimes I would have to leave during the final song or prayer because I was starting to cry it felt so wrong being there. I didn't want to draw any unwanted attention to myself, so I started slipping out early and then abruptly quit. I tried for my wife's sake to make a return after a few months. It was not working and the meeting where the "Silver Sword" was released would be my last.

  After I quit attending, then started obsessive researching on the internet. 2-10 hours a day- every day- for over a year.

  I woke up quick and had a pretty solid fade going until I made serious of amazing an unusual moves ( from a human stand point ) and found myself DF'd for "admitted apostasy" about a month ago~

  Glad to be out and returning to normalcy.
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  PorkyFree

  The GB woke me up.

  Overlapping Generations.

  changes to teachings on parables.

  Lett begging for money for 45 minutes and lying about the KH loans being forgiven.

  the Watchtower telling JWs to obey the Organization even if it was not logical, sensible or reasonable - just Obey !

  the elders, branch committee members and Geoff Jackson at the RC in Aussie.

  the more those guys open their mouths the more they stick their feet into it.
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  awake!watcher

  Hubby was unjustly treated at a JC and DF'd. He went in to get help from them, and instead they knocked his feet out from under him. He was already awake at the time but confessed to an infraction (not mentioned in the bible) to clear the air and have a fresh start. The way he was treated disturbed me, I googled a few words and woke up. Am still attending due to family issues, but have not been in the recruiting work for at least 6 months.
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  done4good

  I would argue that it is impossible to be woken up by someone else, however seeds can be planted that will produce fruit given the proper environment.

  I had severe cognitive dissonance for many years before leaving, and did my best not to embrace it. Embracing it means facing the dissonance and trying to figure out why there are logical inconsistencies. This was a painful process, because deep down I recognized there was a severe price to be paid for discovering my beliefs could be wrong. This is why it often takes a personal traumatic situation for someone to wake up, as it did for me.

  This article below I believe explains the reasons why even very intelligent people believe nonsensical things. The four keys points represented provide some insight as to why logic alone is not sufficient in most cases for someone to "wake up" and seriously question their belief system.

  Why do intelligent and educated people still believe nonsense?

  d4g
  
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  Diogenesister

  FayeDunaway

  My first experience with anti cult views was probably field service. We went out in service a LOT. We lived among a very educated population. Many of those people liked to get in long discussions about philosophical/theological issues, often for their own entertainment I think, and I still remember many of the conversations. It's interesting, because of course you are SUPPOSED to go out in service and have discussions with people, but doing that exposed me to all sorts of interesting ideas

  Hi Faye, Hi all,

  I 've sometimes wondered if this is one of the reasons the WT are pushing (geddit?😄)cart witnessing. What with the internet combined with more people educated generally but also specifically re cults, atheism, the biological sciences, evolution & now the Royal Commision etc are the dark tower worried that Jdubs, rarther than enlightening the householder, are more likely to get enlightened themselves . Whereas people are less likely to lecture cart witnesses regarding their folly if they are not being actively engaged in conversation themselves.

  That and legal reasons - always something they have to consider these days, especially if they have a lot of paedophile pioneers' on the loose.
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  jws

  The apostates intrigued me. Being a fan of parody, I remember when apostates left fake Watchtowers on the windshield wipers of cars at a big district convention. But, I could not get my hands on one because they were being gathered up by attendants, leaving me to wonder what they said and why we cared. If we had the truth, surely we could address them point by point and prove them wrong.

  I also met a guy at the door who pointed out a lot of things, including old publications and he said more JWs were in mental institutions than any religion (something I've never verified, and am still dubious about it). But I did sneak into the congregation library to have a peek and it read as he said. I dismissed it as old light or a typo, but I remembered.

  Then I dated a non-JW girl who freaked the F out when she heard I was a JW. Wary of me, I can see, but her reaction (even knowing what JWs are) still seems way crazy. So she had me watch some show about JWs. On it was a Christian apologist who had anti-JW books for sale and I ordered Crisis of Conscience. I had heard about it and it also intrigued me. Why would somebody in the governing body leave? Weren't they tied in right to God? To me it was like the Israelites witnessing the parting of the Red Sea (Charlton Heston style, not Christian Bale) and then turning around and worshiping calves. WTF? And BTW, I think this was an arch-nemisis of my dad's who was called in as a ringer to debate JWs. More than once my dad was at an RV for more than a couple hours (with me waiting in the car) and he came back telling of this guy. And here I am, ordering from him.

  Though I had seen things before, and wasn't happy being a JW, I'd have ignored problems and forced myself to be a JW or would have drifted away to become one of those non-practicing JWs who believes they left the truth and would some day be ripe for a shepherding call to bring me back to the fold at some point in my life when I was down.

  But, I read COC, found out the JWs were false, and consciously decided they were wrong and I couldn't return to them.

  So, it was apostates that got me out, not some deep down feeling that things were wrong. A few years later the internet came out. And it has only reinforced and enlightened me. My mind was already made up.
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  jws

  FayeDunaway wrote:

  My first experience with anti cult views was probably field service. We went out in service a LOT. We lived among a very educated population. Many of those people liked to get in long discussions about philosophical/theological issues, often for their own entertainment I think, and I still remember many of the conversations. It's interesting, because of course you are SUPPOSED to go out in service and have discussions with people, but doing that exposed me to all sorts of interesting ideas .

  That's one of the biggest things that makes me wonder about "bad association". We can't go to a funeral service and hear an opposing preacher speak in a general speech. We can't associate with worldly people. Yet we can stand and debate somebody at the door. Somebody who is in a 2-way conversation, listening to what we're saying and directly contradicting it. Somehow that's OK.
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  cofty

  Personal study using only WT publications

  Avoided ex-JWs like the plague until after I was out