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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  notjustyet

  Woke myself up.

  It was the 2010 Generation change of definition that made me go slack jaw. I had missed the DC that year where it was brought up and my wife knew that I always had issues with "new light" mods so she failed to let me know about it.

  My family was at a yearly JW family meetup and one of my cousins brought up the "new light" and I listened in and went all blank wondering what I just had heard.

  This set me on a course to eventually start to look at youtube videos from exjws. As I started to get a little more room in my thinking ability, as far as exjw info, I started to visit this site and also JWR. Eventually I contacted Steven Hassan and had a interview with him about how to get my wife and children out of the cult. Toward the end of the phone call with him he asked if I had someone else help me get out or if I had done it on my own..

  I told him that I did it on my won and he told he that it was very difficult to get yourself out of a cult. At that moment I felt a wave of emotion come over me as this was the first time that I had been commended for all the work and mental stress I had been through for the last year plus. It felt really good to know that I was on the right track.

  I'm glad to say that even though it was the hardest thing to do, I was able to get my wife and 2 children out of the cult.

  NJY
• 

  purrpurr

  For me it was the total lack of love that drove me away... Straight to here in fact!
• 

  Crisis of Conscience

  I woke myself up after being a ministerial servant for almost 10 years.

  Only after waking up did I reflect on the the things of the past.

  I recall being about 17 that while going door to door, a woman told me JWs were a cult and I was brainwashed.

  Naturally at the time I denied it.

  Now I wish it would have moved me to action.

  Oh well, about 10 years later it made sense.

  I'm out now. I'm glad.
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  Beth Sarim

  That lack of love thing is just priceless. That was one of the factors that got me thinking too. It's amazing how your phone only rings when they want something like a field service report. That's something that always bugged me big time.
• 

  onightdivine

  I woke myself up. I had doubts especially about elders and those up there having higher authority... because power corrupts most human beings, right?

  A little researching had me uncover articles related to cases of child abuse, UN, etc.. but most of all, I felt that something wasn't right.

  Ultimately, it is the level of self-righteousness, hypocrisy, conditional love, absence of genuine care that helped me realize this is just like any other religion... but more emotionally damaging to members.

  I thought that my curiousity, gut feel, and reasoning are also a gift from God. So why should I completely ignore it to follow WTS blindly?? I woke up and want to never fall asleep again.
• 

  John Aquila

  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.

  I remember the time when they implied that the generation that saw 1914, “MIGHT DIE”

  I believe that was a little earlier perhaps 1990. But I was never the same after that. I stepped down as an elder. Still, it took me many years to finally see.

  done4good Thanks for that link, it really explains a lot for me.

  
  

  notjustyet

  I told him that I did it on my won and he told he that it was very difficult to get yourself out of a cult. At that moment I felt a wave of emotion come over me as this was the first time that I had been commended for all the work and mental stress I had been through for the last year plus.

  I have always felt that those of us who woke up have something unique that differentiates us from the rest of the world. We seem to have some innate ability to reason, think, and pull ourselves out of the most difficult situations a human can be enslaved to. In other words, we can think our way out of dangerous situations. Not many people can do that. We should be able to do anything we set our minds to.
• 

  tornapart

  Raymond Franz woke me up. Although it was my own choice to read it.

  I'd always had 'questions'. Although I believed in 'Armageddon', I never believed the prophecies of when it would come. I never believed in 1975 and thought (as a young teen) that people selling their houses were stupid. I married a man who had been to university, never pioneered and had a good job (even though now he's an elder). We happily got a mortgage and had kids. I always derided the 'Revelation Climax' interpretations.. ie the Cedar Point Ohio stuff being the 7 trumpets. 1918, 1919 dates, the 2 witnesses being the governing body in prison etc. I always had a few doubts even about 1914. Come 2010 and the 'overlapping generation' and my doubts were making my head spin. I'd read the bible and tried to see it in a different light.... I found it interesting. Then quite by chance I read about Raymond Franz on Wikipedia.... I found his book online and read it in 3 days.(CoC) The rest as they say is history. One cannot read that book and not wake up to TTATT.
• 

  Vidiot

  onightdivine - "...most of all, I felt that something wasn't right."

  Hoo boy, that takes me back.

  It's such a relief when you finally realize you're not alone or crazy for feeling that way, isn't it?
• 

  Phizzy

  Just to answer the last part of your Thread Title question, I certainly put in the effort to wake myself up, or rather, to thoroughly learn TTATT, and to learn all the things forbidden to me, or denied to me by Information Control as a member of the JW Org. Cult

  As soon as I lost any reservations about using the Internet, and this was before my actual Walk which meant I was never going back, I read everything that I could lay my hands on.

  I also obtained books on Evolution, Philosophy, History and the Bible. In short, I gained an Education. (which is still on-going of course, I never get fed up with learning).

  I was in for 58 years, and I reckon it took me five years to totally eradicate any JW feelings about things.The actual teachings/doctrines fell like a House of Cards right at the beginning, but vestigial feelings about things continued longer.

  I think that educating myself has helped me get rid of any trace of having been a JW, apart from the abiding interest I have in their latest shenanigans, hence my presence here.
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  Vidiot

  Phizzy - "... I reckon it took me five years to totally eradicate any JW feelings about things.The actual teachings/doctrines fell like a House of Cards right at the beginning, but vestigial feelings about things continued longer."

  Sounds about right for me, too.

  You can take the boy out of the Watchtower, but it's a little harder to take the Watchtower out of the boy...