Does a High State of Anxiety...mean you're "spiritual"?...

by upside/down 15 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  upside/down

  As a Dub I remember everyone in a constant state of high-anxiety...THE SKY IS FALLING! (till they were overcome with some syndrome or depression brought on by this unhealthy debilitating mindset)

  As if that made you worthy of surviving the Big A...if and when it came.

  If you just lived your life...without anxiety...and the Big A arrived...you just "couldn't be worthy"...

  Why? So what...if the "end" comes...it totally reminds me of the FEAR and TERROR that the terrorists try to instill in the population...so it's like a cloud that dampens any and all thoughts...I REFUSE TO GIVE IN TO THIS TACTIC....(so much for a "loving god")

  I don't remember ever reading in the Bible...that I was to be in a constant debilitating state of fear...but rather happy EXPECTATION!

  Since the Dubs are strictly outward appearance people...displaying a constant state of high-anxiety was considered a "spiritual" quality.

  How f*cked up is that?

  u/d(of the never did quite "fit in" class)
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  ButtLight

  Heck no! It means you need some help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (kinda like my day is going)
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  Billygoat

  I don't remember ever reading in the Bible...that I was to be in a constant debilitating state of fear...but rather happy EXPECTATION!

  That's a great point!
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  Frannie Banannie

  I don't remember ever reading in the Bible...that I was to be in a constant debilitating state of fear...but rather happy EXPECTATION!

  Yah....but when the Governing Haughty finish putting their spin on it, all their minions are supposed to go around being in happy expectation of the rest of humanity being destroyed and their bones being picked clean by birds.

  Sad, idnit?

  Frannie
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  Terry

  Perfect love and fear don't fit together scripturally; but, somehow, the Watchtower puts the latter in front of the former and qualifies it as proof of the "approved" mindset.

  I'm reminded of Gypsy fortunetellers who convince their customer there is a curse on them that can only be cured by burying some money in a specially marked gravesite (to be retrieved by the Gypsy afterward! unbeknownst to the client).

  The Watchtower Gypsies convince you to bury your life in works to be reaped as benefits by themselves unbeknownst to the world at large. Thus, both sets of charlatans are viewed as sources of mystical knowledge and the remedy for life's ills.

  High Anxiety is a state of mind that naturally follows having a set of "spiritual" values that cannot apply practically to a real world and is the most evident proof that religion is a false comfort and needless waste of time.

  T.
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  poppers

  I would say the opposite is more accurate - the less anxious one is the greater liklihood that they are "spiritual" (whatever that is). Anxiety can only come as a result in the belief in how things "should or shouldn't be" and not living up to those beliefs. Even if one lives up to a particular belief, that belief is held only because an "opposing" belief is being suppressed.
  
  All beliefs are mind created, and so, anxiety is mind-created. Without relying on any beliefs and living life in the present moment (the only "time" there actually is) anxiety has no opportunity to arise. Living such a life opens one to the wonder of what "is", rather than reducing "what is" to what ego/mind thinks it should/shouldn't be. Seeing "what is" as it is, is the basis of what could be called the "spiritual".
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  Shining One

  Dubs are in a high state of anxiety due to a number of factors:
  
  1) They are in a cult as you are alluding to.
  2) There is no 'eternal security' in their theology.
  3) They are not real Christians but 'Jonadabs', only the 144,000 are real Christians.
  4) They have to do mental gymnastics every time the teachings change or flip flop.
  5) They have to suppress all doubt rather than explore and investigate their doubts.
  6) They oftentimes have idiots in charge of congregations.
  Mix and match the above however you want.
  Rex
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  Shining One

  >High Anxiety is a state of mind that naturally follows having a set of "spiritual" values that cannot apply practically to a real world and is the most evident proof that religion is a false comfort and needless waste of time.
  
  T.
  
  Religion is just that. A relationship is far different. This physical realm is not a Christian's home. It is a temporary dwelling, an immortal soul in a physical body that is dying. We are sojourners....
  In His name,
  Rex
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  upside/down

  the present moment (the only "time" there actually is)

  What a simple...yet profound comment.

  So the Dubs... are the masters of "spin"?

  u/d
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  Narkissos

  Very interesting question.

  Leaving aside the "end of the world" expectation (which is only marginal in religious phenomena) and restricting the topic to religion in the modern world where it is a choice and no longer a necessary part of social life, I would suggest: whereas "spirituality" implies a sort of serenity and as such seems to be opposed to anxiety, I do think that there is a sort of "anxiety window" which makes religion meaningful to some. Under a certain level of anxiety you just don't need religion and cannot really understand what it is about. You may be a member of a religion (if it is part of your education, for instance); you may even become a talented and respected minister (there are many clergymen of that kind, especially in the high levels of hierarchy) but still you do not "get" what others (I would say, really anxious-religious people) expect from religion. (The portraits of pastors in Ingmar Bergman's movies, especially The Communicants, are a good illustration of that.) Of course, over a higher er level of anxiety religion won't help either and rather worsen your situation.

  I would say religion is a pharmakon -- both remedy and poison. If you don't need it don't take it. If it doesn't help beware of increasing the dose, it can make you worse. "Spirituality" is perhaps the (relative and provisional) personal balance where you get if you have found the right kind and dose of religion for your anxiety... Beware of recommending it to others though.

  Edited to add that this reminds me of Gospel of Thomas 102: "Jesus said: Woe to the Pharisees, for they are like a dog lying in the manger of the cattle; for he neither eats nor does he let the cattle eat."