How Long Did It Take To Finally Leave The Organization Once You Realized It Was Really Not The Truth? (page 3)

Doofgrandaddy

Same as Blondie.

Actually it took about 2 hours.

Studied the "generation" teaching online and that was it.

For me I had doubts from day 1 but kept it behind bars coz I thought I was fresh in , so do not have all the info so I may be wrong. Never had time to delve deeper into my doubts coz I was still in school (no internet,no laptops or computers or even a tv for that matter, poor background..life was difficult and challenging without creating waves with my doubts). In time though , I woke up like in an instant with the money grabbing letters, and the generation change, more anointed numbers addedie when I started studying with the jdumbs there was only 8800 something of these Ass0 left on earth.In 10 more years or so I guess, it had gone to 11000 and then to over 19000 ! I was taught that this number will keep discreasing more or less as we are nearer theend. So this was a rude awakening of what really is going on with the so called truth! Did not take research at all to wake up. Now that I was, I just started (coz my love for me partner was wayyyyyyy greater than for jehovah) to sever all ties so as to have least contact with any jdumbs. So first off, I changed my phone number and never passed on my new number to anyone just my partner! Even congregation record cards did not update .

2. Shredded my blood card,waiting for the right time to let my partner know of what to do in need of an emergency.

3. Bided my time to gently start to wake my partner up. it took a year to wake my partner up and that was it. my partner once awoke said No more anyhting to do with jdumbs.

That was that for me but till my partner woke up I would be at the meetings but with my tablet researching , reading up on things.Never was mentally there at all.

Sorry about the length.

Zing

HappyGal

I left thinking the truth was no fun. Just meetings study and service. I didn't want that life anymore. That was the 80s and information was not available as it is today. It took years to realize it wasn't the truth. Had google and YouTube been around then it would have been quick.

smiddy3

I think it was a gradual thing with me and it took 2 or 3 years .The last meeting was for a funeral service and never set foot in a KH since.

snugglebunny

45 minutes. The time it took for the weekly book study to start on the modern day interpretations of Ezekiel's visions. It just suddenly clicked that I was doing so many things that I disliked intensely just so'd I could survive the Big A. And it was all based on these sort of inane ramblings from 1000's of years ago. The emotion I felt wasn't one of disappointment - it was one of relief! No more meetings, no more door to door work and i could finally say goodbye to that rather unpleasant person with whom I was sharing my life.

WingCommander

@Blondie:

What exactly made you up and leave after one particular meeting, never to return? I know some of your background having been on here for years, but not sure I heard that part of your story before.

Care to clarify? Thanks!

tiki

Omg...years and years....I hung on out of guilt I think....I know we quit going to the ts&sm in early 90's....did Sundays and the bk study till about 2002 but not with regularity....I quit fs in late 90's....kept up appearances basically...plus we were very close with another couple, so much of our involvement was socially driven. Was down to maybe a Sunday meeting here or there...then memorial and I was loath to go and fighting myself all day....hubby finally said...are you sure you really want to go to the shindig....I said no.....we never went into a hall again except for the funeral of the man of the couple with whom we were close. His widow remarried out of the org and has been ostracized due to that...she is uninvolved...we are still friends. But...my fade took a long time. I had such cognitive dissonance and didn't realize what it was. Plus I was never accepted really because I preferred to work full-time and live a decent lifestyle. I had tried the Pioneer poverty thing in my youth and hated it.

LongHairGal

MINIMUS:

After that fateful meeting when we studied the 1995 changed teaching on Generation, I knew in my heart it was over. I knew I could no longer continue in this hypocritical religion that was jerking us all around.

The problem was I dragged my feet. I really didn’t want to believe it and even though I really hated the religion, the attitudes, the way I was treated - I had a few friends I liked there - or so I thought. Being in the “truth” had become a bad habit and I had to think how I was going to do this...

I became even more irregular with meeting attendance and several years later my Mom passed away and I decided this was a perfect opportunity to just stop. I was in mourning so it was believable. I had officially started my “Fade”. I had already started sending out Christmas cards to my non-JW family the previous Holiday season! It was a process and I gradually got rid of all the shit I accumulated. Stuff that I revered, like an autographed song book, etc. from my study conductor, got torn to shreds.

I might have gone to a special meeting after this once or twice; the memorial for several years until I could no longer stand it.... Also, I noticed JWs were standoffish to me and I even remember JWs in shopping areas and stores who didn’t want to say hello..Who cares? These people weren’t even my friends.

My “Fade” was good and my only regret was that I didn’t do it a decade sooner. I reconnected with estranged family before it was too late (priceless)...Now, I’m over eighteen years Out and a Retiree..I think of the lousy way I was viewed in the religion because I had a full time job..I’m so grateful I paid NO attention to the religion’s faulty policies and stuck to my guns.

dozy

Probably took 6 months or so - the process was drawn out because I have a lot of family as JWs ( including elderly parents ) and to go "cold turkey" & leave in a very short time period would have been difficult logistically.

I eventually came off as an elder & the plan was to stay and intermittently attend meetings for a few months and then fade completely but that step only took 6 weeks or so. I had always been involved in the meetings and invariably had an item ( or two ) every week and was the TMS overseer - I hadn't realised that the meetings are so boring and pointless when you aren't involved in any way and I just hated them & my kids didn't want to attend either. I went on a vacation abroad & decided while I was away to never go back.

blondie

@WC

Here is a quote from a 2006 WT Comments about how I left at the announcements in the morning on the first day of the circuit assembly. I left in 2001 never to return.

I can say that when I stopped attending all meetings at the KH and conventions and assemblies that my despondency disappeared. How quickly the oppressive fog lifted. No more hearing that I was an elephant conditioned to stay chained to a post, that non-JWs were only corpses, and that Jesus only picked up shiny new quarters and left the dirty pennies on the sidewalk. No more wondering why the love of God and Jesus weren't seen at the WTS gatherings. If you haven't already, why not take a vacation from the WTS grind?

How Long Did It Take To Finally Leave The Organization Once You Realized It Was Really Not The Truth?