Posts by troubled mind

8

Funny but kind of sad story

by troubled mind in

jw
friends

my youngest son (26yrs old) told me the other day that his barber told him a funny story .. it seems the barber use to be the janitor at the local grade school ,and one day he came into the office and noticed this little red headed boy sitting in there .

now the man said this was a busy day for the little kids ,holiday parties going on in the class rooms so he was curious as to why this little guy was just sitting in the office ...so the janitor asked the secretary what was up with that ?

.....then he said the little red headed kid speaks up loudly ,"i hate being a witness !!

troubled mind

My youngest son (26yrs old) told me the other day that his barber told him a funny story .

It seems the barber use to be the janitor at the local grade school ,and one day he came into the office and noticed this little red headed boy sitting in there . Now the man said this was a busy day for the little kids ,holiday parties going on in the class rooms so he was curious as to why this little guy was just sitting in the office ...So the janitor asked the secretary what was up with that ? .....Then he said the little red headed kid speaks up loudly ,"I HATE BEING A WITNESS !!" Then the barber tells my son ,'You know that really made me mad that day seeing that poor kid missing out ,and I have told that story numerous times to others ,but I just realized that little kid was YOU !!" .My son laughed and said he didn't remember that ,but yeah it sounded like something he would have said .

thankfully he is free now and not bitter .

418

Who has experienced a REAL demonic incident?

by Monsieur in

has anybody here experienced a bonafide, real, true incident in whicy 'demons' actually interacted with you or did something 'supernatural' that left you convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that satan and his demons exist??.

.

troubled mind

http://vimeo.com/69729533

36

At the DMV and what do I see?

by whathehadas in

the jw's are taking it a little too far.

people have to wait in line and be tortured by the sight of this.. .

troubled mind

They set one of these up in the parking lot of the Wal-mart in my town . Just like the Amish baked goods booth and the girl scout cookie girls .Next time I see them I will be asking the Wal-Mart manager if I can set up an Ex-Jw table

418

Who has experienced a REAL demonic incident?

by Monsieur in

has anybody here experienced a bonafide, real, true incident in whicy 'demons' actually interacted with you or did something 'supernatural' that left you convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that satan and his demons exist??.

.

troubled mind

I'll will preface this with ,I personally do not believe in demons ....However recently my youngest son and his friends have started a paranormal investigation team ....I know ,I know .

Well they have gone to two different locations and done interviews ,EVP recordings and video . Something I can not explain is when they have done the white noise box (has another name I don't remember what they call it ) ,but twice when asking questions this box records a voice saying "Hey Look ' and then my son's name . My son's name is not very common . This last time there was a female voice saying his name ,and when i heard it I immediately felt like I knew who this voice belonged to ....someone who has passed . It made me very uneasy ....I have no explaination for it ,yet I still can not believe in demons .

If anyone wants to hear the recording I think i can find it and share .

35

My 8 year old daughter tells me she is an atheist...???

by sosoconfused in

so since we have not been to a meeting in 6 months or so, i decided to ask my daughter (on the way home from cheerleading practice - yeah i can't believe i am letting her engage in such a worldly activity lol) if she misses going to the kingdom hall.

she says sometimes because she can't see her friend - but she has made new friends so it doesn't bother her too much.

so i ask her, "well, what about learning about jehovah?

troubled mind

You have NO reason to be mad at this child ..... You just are finding her critical thinking and truthfulness un-nerving for yourself . You are reaching a point that is out of your own comfort zone . Could it be that because your child can now think like this,that maybe it is time for YOU to look inside and examine your own beliefs ,and this makes you uncomfortable ,uneasy .

When my 20-something son told me he was now an atheist ,I know I cringed . I too felt maybe it was my fault that I had turned him away from God .But over time I just realized he has the freedom to decide for himself what to believe . We were brought up with not much of a choice ,at least I wasn't ....I loved Science ,but had to mentally juggle what I learned in class to what was being fed at the KH.

You're daughter is fortunate she will be able to examine all sides and make her own choice .

32

exJW Psychology 104--One Way to Play the Depression Card

by Billy the Ex-Bethelite in

jw
friends

i had an interesting conversation with bobby (*some names have been changed) last weekend.

he's also a successful fader going back several years before me.

but i found we had something in common that i hadn't realized.. bobby had never been particularly happy growing up.

troubled mind

Same here, what ultimately made me walk away, and never go back was this intense feeling that if I didn't I would end up killing myself from unhappiness....

Since child hood I suffeered from mild depressive episodes . As an adult I had a major episode that required medication for several years . I searched for reasons why , I could never completely shake these feeelings of worthlessness ,and unhappiness. Then things just started lining up for me ....and for once I began to look at the root causes of what made me sad . Meetings ,and service were not the refreshment the brothers said they were instead I found them stressful, and often demeaning ,and or boring .The brothers said the congregation was our "family" yet all I saw was cliques and back biting ,and people that were fake . The rigorous routine of study, service , meetings,quick builds ,on top of working and caring for a family left me drained not refreshed.

I had never questioned my religion before ...if something was wrong I had always figured it had to be me .. This may sound silly ,but I think what reallly helped me look beyond myself was watching the Dr Phil show ! Especially after his show about cults ,I saw myself in those peoples experiences ,and I felt for the first time that I had the right to question what had been taught to me all my life as 'truth'. From that show I learned about Steve Hasson , Freeminds ,and eventually that led me here .

When I learned about cognitive dissonance it made perfect sense to me why I had been so unhappy . I knew for years I felt I was being torn in two mentally . Me inner personality was geared towards goodness and kindness and this conflicted with the Witness view of disfellowshipment and treatment of worldly people . My own conscience was always being squelched in favor of 'Watchtower" think .

I feel truly happy now ,more than I ever have been in my whole life . The first two or three yrs after fading were difficult I will not lie ,but never as depressing as when I was a JW . It was just a transitioning period into a whole different kind of life .

The few Witnesses I have spoken to since may fade always are amazed when I telll them how happy my life is now....it is like they just can not compute that information .

20

Is it common to,,,

by label licker in

jw
friends

have a local needs on apostasy, have everyone shun you, have no shepherding calls since you left for over a year, and now a jc tomorrow evening????????.

spoke to branch committee as well as co and they said to go and if we were treated unfairly then to call the co. don't get it.

the co would have known about the local needs talk on apostasy and says if we were treated unfairly to call him.

troubled mind

Don't go ,period. What do you honestly think is going to happen ?

23

Fed up with the way JWs treat those who can no longer believe

by hotspur in

my favourite uncle died about two years ago (non-witness) and my mother couldn't tell me .

earlier today i went round to the cathedral square of the city where i work for some lunch and i had the misfortune to sit near to an ol'boy witnessing to some people who were too polite to respond.

he kept going on about truth.

troubled mind

Hotspur I am so sorry the way you have been treated . I wonder if more of us will be seeing this kind of treatment too . What happened to necessary family business ???

44

Newly wed UBM and soon to meet JW in-laws

by UBM101 in

i have been lurking here for a couple of years.

my hubby (inactive & some doubts) and i were just married and i'll be going to his place to meet his family (pretty much dubs).

they seem to be friendly and excited to meet me, and i kind of had agreed to attend the kingdumb hall meeting once (in my life time, yep, that's the agreement) and also meeting an elder who brain-washed my hubby during his teen.

troubled mind

Handle yourself with confidence in your own belief system . They are looking for someone easy to influence ,pliable . If you are firm in your own beliefs and not searching for answers it makes it harder for them .

I think it is time you and your husband had a true heart to heart talk about what he plans to do about any manipulation moves on their part . Please don't give any false hopes .Hopefully they will respect your rights if you are up front and honest from the get go .

My brothers husband was Df'd when he married a woman that was Catholic. When he was reinstated she attended a few meetings and of course was love bombed by the JW family . She told me the first time she met the other sister in law she was offered a personal bible study ,and after a few visits she let them know she would never become a JW ....that side of the family just walked away from her and never gave her the time of day afterwards . On the other hand my husband and I accepted her for herself ,and have treated her as family when we were witnesses and now that we are not . So people are people and it will just depend on what kind of people his family turns out to be .

30

First post venting

by Freethinking76 in

jw
friends

hello ,i am a jw,been in the "truth " for about 6 years.i have to be very careful because i know the witnesses monitors sites and report to the elders ,i know cause that is what my blood sister does,she spends hours trying to find apostates in the closet.i know stuped.. so this is my situation.i have known about jw almost all my life and heard that only them have the truth,lots of my family are in it.i was the one taking too long to baptize ,i knew it was expected from me.and i always had a need to make ppl like me .so i took the dip.i started to notice that there are lots of jws that belong to little groups.i wanted friendship so bad and at the time had a need o tell ppl about my horrible childhood traumas i guess i was not over it yet,and needed some to lisent since i had drove my spouse nuts already .what happend this ppl pretend to want to be close to me so they can know all my business and then tell everyone at the hall.then you realize uhhh,they never confided their personal stuff to me.is like a game " you can tell me your stuff,but do not expect me to keep it to myself and do not think i will tell you my dirty laundry.a lot of mind games.. so i was alone ,invisible ,i still can't believe i put up with so much !

i can't wright not even half of what i when through.i feel paranoic now.so i came across a youtube video by jwstruggle and blow my mind ,now i can't stop researching,my spouse is not a jw,and is very shock too.so i decided that i want to fade,i guess it won't be so hard since the sis and brothers did not had a close relationship with me.i have kids and i suffer from pts ,anxiety attacks,panick attacks and severe depression.i moved to the next town of my hall,so i have change hall too.i have not been to my new hall,and wanted to know,will the elders in my old hall contact the elders in my new hall just to see if i am attending?..

my spouse told me " i will tell them i am not letting you go" "and "i found out that your liars!

troubled mind

FreeThinking , Welcome and vent all you want ! My advice to you is : Now that you have moved never go back ! It is a clean slate for you now ,and your mate has the right idea .If anyone you can not avoid asks, tell them your mate no longer will allow the children to attend .

Remember this very important point The Jehovah's Witnesses have no power over you ,only what you allow them to have . You owe NO ONE answers to why you have quit attending ,even the Elders .

You can read many experiences here on how other people have moved on away from the Watchtower control . Give yourself time to figure out who you are ,what interests you would like to pursue ,and get busy living !

This place is a wonderful place to vent with others that understand ,and a way to unravel the mind numbing nonsense the Wathtower subjected us to .

Good luck on your journey !