Posts by cognizant dissident

5

"Even Most JWs Agree to Blood..."

by CountryGuy in

today, i went to the doctor and scheduled some elective surgery.

this, of couse, required some paperwork.

one of the items i had to sign was a consent to have a blood transfusion if necessary.

cognizant dissident

I'm guessing your records are in a database somewhere and the fact that you were a JW came up. Maybe he was just trying to feel you out and see if that was still your position? As far as saying that most JW's relent and secretly take some blood, I'm not sure if this is true. Perhaps he was just saying that in the hopes to sway you because he thought you may not be a very devout JW who was sitting on the fence?

I had surgery a few years ago, and the anasthesiologist told me he had NEVER seen a JW who recanted on their position on blood at the last minute. I'm inclined to believe him judging just from the experiences of the JW's I know.

Cog

45

Most ridiculous Kingdom Melody Lyrics

by Fleshybirdfodder in

jw
friends

a couple of my favs:.

"loyal love, god is love, may god's love move us to love".

"...like bees that were molested, but we can ever beat them off...".

cognizant dissident

When the new songbook first came out and my friend and I were singing that song with the rhyme "vivacious and efficacious" we both burst out laughing at the same time because we thought it was so funny how they were stretching so hard for a rhyme. The more we tried to stop, the harder we laughed. Soon we had everyone around us giggling and laughing at us! Then we started getting dirty looks from the elder on the platform. We giggled all through the closing prayer too. Then we got a "talking too" after the meeting. We were not kids either. We were in our 20's.

Still don't know what the hell efficacious means!

Cog (of the vivacious class)

89

What are you reading?

by damselfly in

now that i'm done with school for the summer i've got some spare time to read as much as i like.

heaven!

i just finished "sylvanus now" by donna morrisey.

cognizant dissident

I currently have 3 books on the go.

"The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter" by Carson Greely. It's kind of sad and depressing.

"The Places That Scare You" by Pema Chodron

"Life Strategies: by Dr. Phil

My next three books are going to be:

"The Power Of Now" recommended by James Thomas.

"Take Back Your Life" recommended by Lady Lee

"The Da Vince Code" just to see what all the fuss is about!

Cog

22

The name Jehovah and demons.

by Zico in

jw
friends

the society teaches that if unexplainable things are happening in your home, then shouting out the name jehovah will cause them to stop.

as you probably know, this is meant to be because these strange things are caused by demons, which may have posessed an object from your home, which was previously used in demonic activity.

but, supposedly, since they fear jehovah, shouting out this name can cause these things to stop, even if only temporarily.

cognizant dissident

LOL jwfacts: at the RV who wiggled her little toe when the demons pinned her to the bed.

Why would a wiggling toe scare away a demon? Why were they pinning her to the bed, anyway? Did they want to have sex with her? I've heard some women (even JW's) claim that demons tried to have sex with them. How does a demon know when he has climaxed? So do they ever try to make the woman climax? Or are they more the wham bam thank you mam types? Those horny little devils!

Cog

25

How Do I Get Rid of these Thoughts?

by jwfacts in

though i no longer think like a witness i still think "that is what i would think if i was still a witness".. everytime i see a birthday party or christmas on tv i think "ohh, if i was a jw i would think they were pagan, and not really having fun.".

when i speak to someone at work and they say they got drunk or wasted on the weekend i think "oooh, if i was a jw i would be offended by that, but i don't really care anymore.".

i would much prefer to be able to take life for what it is, not constantly compare what it was with what it is and what i am thinking it will be.. any suggestions on how to erase the ridiculous notions that were drummed into me from birth?

cognizant dissident

JWfacts

The counsellor I'm seeing has explained it to me this way: The brain is always making connections to the past, to what is already known, and trying to establish patterns. It is a survival mechanism which can be very useful at times, very annoying and frustrating at other times. As JW's, our minds were conditioned, or trained, to think in certain patterns, over a period of many years for some of us. If we want to change those beliefs and substitute new ones we can, but the old patterns are still there. It is a gradual process of building new brain connections. It happens over time. Being aware of the thoughts when they arise is half the battle. The other half is just acknowledging the thought as being part of your previous conditioning (not beating yourself up for still thinking that way). Then consciously letting it go and reminding yourself of your new belief (pattern). It sounds a little corny, I know, but it does work over time. It is just a gradual retraining of the brain. Like forming a new habit.

I find that talking things over with a counsellor is helpful because even though I no longer believe anything the org has to say, after 40 yrs of conditioning, I am constantly falling in to patterns of black or white, all or nothing, thinking as well as perfectionism and guilt in other areas of my life. It is like second nature to me and I don't even realize I'm doing it half the time. So it is helpful to have an objective person to point this out to me when I'm making major life changes.

Check out Lady Lee's threads on "Taking Back Your Life". There's a lot of good stuff in there about mind control. The good news is our minds are really in our own control now!

Cog

42

Do you think that most "thin"people have hatred towards "heavy" people?

by booker-t in

jw
friends

i know this might sound abit "paranoid" but as i mentioned on other posts before i am a "heavy" person who is losing weight.

so far i have lost 65 pounds and i am still losing through a "strict"diet and exercise.

i was at a restaurant the other day and there were 4 "thin" people sitting at a table across from a "very heavy overweight" man.

cognizant dissident

I've read a lot of comments here about different reasons people could be overweight. There are definitely some medical conditions that can lead to gross weight gain. Hypothyroidism, insulin resistance, kidney disease, adrenal disease to name a few. The treatments for some diseases (corticostearoids) can also lead to huge weight gain. There are also many painful physical conditions that can prevent one from exercising fully. That being said there are a lot of overweight people who eat too much junk food and watch too much TV.

The point is not what causes someone to be fat. The point is, that when we see a fat person in the mall or wherever, we do not know that person and what has led them to this point in their lives. We do not know if they have a serious illness, or if they have been in an accident , or if they just eat way too many fritos and donuts. How do we know that person in the motorized cart is in there because they are too lazy to walk? How do we know they don't have rheumatoid arthitis or MS. We don't know. We do not know if they have the knowledge or capability at this time to take action about their weight problem. Anything we think we know about them is just an assumption and probably an incorrect one at that. So we need to stop making assumptions and judgements about others when we really don't know their story.

The bottom line is this, making unsolicited comments about other people's bodies, whether fat or thin, ugly or beautiful, is superficial, hurtful, and rude! If someone wants to know what you think of how they look, they will ask you. If they don't ask, then keep your opinions to yourself.

Cog

33

Your great deep secret

by greendawn in

jw
friends

tell us one of your great deep secrets that you are willing, and don't mind, to share with other people.

one of my secrets is that when i was 14 years old (and before becoming a jw) i had sex with a girl my age and also her sister who was one year older than me.

fortunately their mother didn't find out though i think she was suspecting that something fishy was going on.

cognizant dissident

When I was 10, I stole money from the literature money box (my dad was the literature servant and brought the box home after every meeting). He never locked it because he never thought we kids would steal from Jehovah. Boy was he wrong! I used the money to buy cigs at the local store.

Yeah, now that I think about it, I was doomed from the start!

Cog

42

Do you think that most "thin"people have hatred towards "heavy" people?

by booker-t in

jw
friends

i know this might sound abit "paranoid" but as i mentioned on other posts before i am a "heavy" person who is losing weight.

so far i have lost 65 pounds and i am still losing through a "strict"diet and exercise.

i was at a restaurant the other day and there were 4 "thin" people sitting at a table across from a "very heavy overweight" man.

cognizant dissident

I have been on both sides of this issue myself.

When I was younger, I was very thin and had the experience of heavier women instantly hating me and making snide remarks about me without even knowing me. Now, I am quite a bit heavier and I have had the experience of thin people who have never known a weight problem making rude comments about my weight.

When I was thin, I had some very overweight friends who were some of the nicest, kindest people I ever met. When I was heavy, I never lost one of my beautiful thin friends, because I chose them as my friends because they were great people, not because they were thin and beautiful.

What I have learned from my experiences on every spectrum of the weight scale is that there are superficial, rude and obnoxious jerks in every shape, size, color and gender. There are also beautiful, wonderful, caring people in every shape, size, color and gender. Avoid the former and search out the latter.

Cog.

87

What nice, interesting thing did you see today?

by Lady Lee in

jw
friends

so often we are stuck in the negative part of life and see so much of the bad.

the news is full of it.

i look for the things that are nice.

cognizant dissident

I've been feeling kind of depressed and lousy today, full of worry about my finances, health etc. So I had to think hard of something good I saw today.

It has been a very grey and wet long weekend here. The sky opened up full throttle and absolutely poured for a few minutes. I don't know why everyone hates rain so much. I love it when this happens. It makes me want to go outside and stand in it and get drenched. I should have done that. It probably would have made me feel more alive and less blah. Next time that happens, I'm gonna go stand outside and get drenched! ( I did go stand on the porch and notice that the new yard drain my husband put in was working pretty good)

Thanks, Lady Lee, for reminding us that we need to look for the good things that happen in a day and not just let them pass by unnoticed.

22

Other 'superstitions' of JWs (other than fortune cookies)

by Jim_TX in

jw
friends

well... the 'fortune cookie' thread got me to thinking about all of the silly things that my mom (and the jws) did when i was growing up.. it has been a while, and so i know that i won't be able to remember all of them.. my mom refused to buy a soft drink named 'sprite' - as its' logo included a small impish-looking fella (a sprite) that wore a bottlecap for a hat.

she claimed it was deemunz.. my mom hesitated to buy fried chicken at a place named 'church's fried chicken', as she wasn't sure if the name meant 'religion', or was a person's last name.. my mom refused to shop at salvation army - cause it would be supporting another religion.. the folks at the local kingdom hall came down hard on my mom cause one of my sisters wore a cute little 'sailor's dress'... it had boat anchors, and other 'sailor' emblems on the buttons, that were considered 'militaristic' by the powers-that-be at the local kh.

(i'm not sure if my mom put on different buttons, or scrapped the dress entirely.

cognizant dissident

Did anybody else ever hear that lecithin was another name for blood? My father read the labels on everything and if it had the word lecithin on it and didn't specify that is was soy lecithin, then we couldn't eat it. We couldn't eat fortune cookies for this reason, not because of the fortunes (bizarre or what?)

I also remember my grandma sending us beautiful chocolates all the way from England and we couldn't eat them because they said lecithin on the ingredients and they might have blood in them. (horrors). Even as a little kid of 4 years old, this made no sense to me. I remember thinking why would anyone put blood in chocolates to make them taste better? outta the mouths of babes!

Cog