Jehovah's Witnesses Are Under Mind Control

by minimus 207 Replies latest jw friends

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  Mr Lebowski

  Definition of Socratic Method (for those of you keeping score at home)

  1. The method is skeptical. It begins with Socrates' real or professed ignorance of the truth of the matter under discussion. This is the Socratic irony which seemed to some of his listeners an insincere pretense, but which was undoubtedly an expression of Socrates' genuine intellectual humility. This skepticism Socrates shared with the Sophists and, in his adoption of it, he may very well have been influenced by them. But whereas the Sophistic skepticism was definitive and final, the Socratic is tentative and provisional; Socrates' doubt and assumed ignorance is an indispensable first step in the pursuit of knowledge.

  2. It is conversational. It employs the dialogue not only as a didactic device, but as a technique for the actual discovery of opinions amongst men, there are truths upon which all men can agree, Socrates proceeds to unfold such truths by discussion or by question and answer. Beginning with a popular or hastily formed conception proposed by one of the members of the company or taken from the poets or some other traditional source, Socrates subjects this notion to severe criticism, as a result of which a more adequate conception emerges. His method, in this aspect, is often described as the maieutic method. It is the art of intellectual midwifery, which brings other men's ideas to birth. It is also known as the dialectical method or the method of elenchus.

  3. It is conceptual or definitional in that it sets as the goal of knowledge the acquisition of concepts, such as the ethical concepts of justice, piety, wisdom, courage and the like. Socrates tacitly assumes that truth is embodied in correct definition. Precise definition of terms is held to be the first step in the problem solving process.

  4. The Socratic method is empirical or inductive in that the proposed definitions are criticized by reference to particular instances. Socrates always tested definitions by recourse to common experience and to general usages.

  5. The method is deductive in that a given definition is tested by drawing out its implications, by deducing its consequences. The definitional method of Socrates is a real contribution to the logic of philosophical inquiry. It inspired the dialectical method of Plato and exerted a not inconsiderable influence on the logic of Aristotle.
• 

  minimus

  Yeah, it's my thread and I call the shots, Dude. And the burden of proof rests on you since YOU are in the minority. Hurry up. Time's a wasting!
• 

  garybuss

  
  
  I see behavior control tactics are used by the corporation as well as other Witnesses on Witnesses. Those are not effective as all of us here are proof of. I know Witnesses are told what to believe. That is not effective either. I know Witnesses are taught what and how to think. Not effective. The Society tries to influence the Witness people. The Witness people are not at all controlled by those tactics and at most the Society might squeeze some compliance out of some of them.
  
  For years the Witness people have been telling me they are not under and mind control, that they are doing their behaviors with their own free will. I agree.
  
  Min, to try to separate mind control from brainwashing is impossible. One is the nail, the other is the hammer. It's a distinction without a difference.
  
  I think many confuse the tactics with the results.
  
  Min, you have given me nothing to even consider, let alone to change my opinion. And you are not getting any real help from the viewers of this thread. Where is the proof of your claim? GaryB
  
  
• 

  Mr Lebowski

  OK, that's it - tantrums and arguing are not advancing the state of knowledge.

  First it's a democracy because I'm in the minority, then it's an autocracy since you're in charge. Yah, smack the noob around. :)

  I'll let gary and pork chop take the baton, since you don't seem to want a piece of them...hee hee. Have fun, mini-you.

  Peace, out.

  "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." Anaïs Nin
• 

  minimus

  I've recently (in the last few days) been talking to a few people that have opened up and said that they felt they were under some type of mind control. My wife has expressed this to me more and more and she now sees that much of the scare tactics and the repetition that's been surrounding her over the last 25 years is due to being manipulated (mentally). I've been talking to certain ones that have expressed this exact same sentiment. The only difference is that this couple are in their late 50's and have been raised in the "truth".....So there are others that believe they have been under mind control.....As far as other examples, I'll give you some. When cults like the one in Mass. can kill their own children because they believe "God" told a sister-in-law to stop feeding an infant milk, and be willing to undergo the punishment from the authorities( until they got deprogrammed), that's mind-control. When persons can go to the point of methodically being made to believe that a comet is going to take them up or utopia is attainable by sacraficing your life as a bomber to die for the cause, it happens because of mind control........COULD individuals decide to not follow a certain group like these? Sure. But usually it's the weak or idealistic that fall for this stuff.
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  jgnat

  If the leaders of a group advise it's members that some actions are unacceptable, and doing those actions lead to severe consequences (i.e. shunning), that leadership is controlling the actions of that group.

  If the leaders of a group advise it's members that some thoughts are unacceptable, and having those thoughts lead to severe consequences (i.e. death), that is mind control.
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  jgnat

  It is possible to walk away from a high-control group or a controlling person. I was able to leave my abusive ex-husband of my own free will. Doing so, however, required great strength of will. During the time I lived with my ex-husband, my self-worth took a severe beating. I believe if I had remained much longer, I would have lost the ability to get away.

  Why does the WT frame it's study questions to provide only a single right answer? For example, this week's study directs readers:

  ..Now, each of us does well to ask, 'How will I respond to Jehovah's love?' May you respond by loving him with your whole heart, mind, soul and strength. (Mark 12:29, 30) May the way you live your live each day reflect your heartfelt desire to draw ever closer to Jehovah...(Question: How will you respond to Jehovah's love?) WT July 1, 2003 page 19, para 24.

  Compare this to this sample study from Christendom's churches.

  http://www.gospelcom.net/ivpress/title/exc/2076-I.pdf
• 

  minimus

  jgnat, JW's are always told they're going to die........You say that had you stayed longer in an abusive relationship,you "would have lost the ability to get away."....Hmm, sounds like mind control to me, too.
• 

  heathen

  For those of you who believe that mind control and brainwashing go hand and hand , here is the websters definition of brainwash--- to effect a radical change in beliefs by intensive indoctrination. I say case closed .
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  minimus

  Heathen, some of these folks don't loke the dictionary.