Posts by Keepitsane

25

After being a JW, do you experience panic when someone expresses disapproval

by Elsewhere in

jw
friends

having grown up in the wts i was always taught that there are very serious consequences that result when those in authority do not approve of you.. q: what happens when you break a wt rule?.

a: very quick and brutal punishment in the form of shunning and ostracism.

there is no middle ground... you either get no punishment or extremely severe punishment.. having grown up knowing only those two possible outcomes i find that i tend to become panicked when friends or authority figures express disapproval.

Keepitsane

Not at all.

I wouldn't read too much in to the effect being a JW has had on your life.

I have a friend (never a JW) who is otherwise a very independent strong minded man but he gets panicked by authority figures. He puts it down to the fact he went to a strict boarding school.

My partner (also never a JW) goes to pieces when criticised for anything. She puts it down to the fact her parents were very proud with how academic she was at a young age and since then she's felt the need to be the best at everything she tries or she feels she's letting them down.

Just remember, yes we were raised JW's but there are plenty of other factors wile growing up that could of f*cked us up good and proper like regular children

14

Do you have to be "gullible" in order to be a good JW?

by JH in

jw
friends

in french we use the word "naif", which means to believe anything that's said without proof of it being true.

i think that gullible is the english translation.. i was very gullible in my early jw years.

i guess it's not faith that one needs to be a good jw, but gullibility...

Keepitsane

I don't know about gullible. I was raised as a witness so although I had doubts at the back of my mind for some time, I didn't really want to rock the boat.

After all, dwelling on the doubts meant the possibility of loosing my family and friends.

So, I busied myself with being the best Witness I could beacause, you know, chicks dig ministerial servants! I'm kidding by the way (kinda) but I do think if I analyse the me then and I'm honest about it my motivation for being a good Witness was more for praise from other witnesses and to be considered a good and spiritual person.

18

Does anyone have experience with SYNESTHESIA?

by Nathan Natas in

jw
friends

.

i had a very interesting discussion with a genius friend of mine not long ago about the subject of synesthesia.

if you have personal or professional experience with synesthesia, drop me a line.synesthesia - a sensation produced in one modality when a stimulus is applied to another modality, as when the hearing of a certain sound induces the visualization of a certain color..

Keepitsane

Brento, in answer to your question about vinyl the short answer would be that on comparable equipment quality wise (a high end CD player vs a high end record player), yes it does sound markedly better.

Digital mediums basically dominated the market because they are cheaper and more durable but analogue ones still sound better.

The first reason is that in the interest of holding all the neccesary data CD's only contain frequencies between 20hz and 20khz. This is the range of frequencies that a human being can percieve as sound and the rest was therefore considered useless and a waste of space on the disc.

However, tests have shown that frequencies outside of this range can have a marked effect on the way we percieve things, eg. frequencies lower than 20hz, although inaudible on their own can make us percieve the bass of a recording as fuller and deeper.

The second reason is that CD's aren't playing a constant stream of sound. Rather it's a series of samples (44,100 of them per second to be exact) . What this means practically is that what you hear seems crisp and clear on a surface level but lacks depth, think of how a digital picture looks crisp and clear but if you analyze it closely you'll see it's made up of pixels where the colours in a given area has been averaged out). This is the same with digital music, 44,100 little sonic pixels to aproximate the sound the digital converters percieved at the time of recording.

Hope this isn't too long winded and techie an explanation (I've been a sound engineer for a good while and sometimes make the mistake of believing these things are fascinating to all!)

Leolaia, I like very much your idea about people who percieve auras and synesthesia. Sounds more than plausible. Any other sources for this?

18

Does anyone have experience with SYNESTHESIA?

by Nathan Natas in

jw
friends

.

i had a very interesting discussion with a genius friend of mine not long ago about the subject of synesthesia.

if you have personal or professional experience with synesthesia, drop me a line.synesthesia - a sensation produced in one modality when a stimulus is applied to another modality, as when the hearing of a certain sound induces the visualization of a certain color..

Keepitsane

While LSD can temporarily induce symptoms of Synesthesia it's more that possible to have it without use of substances.

I think that many people have certain crossovers between senses in their brain that can temporarily cause them to see music/taste colours but I think part of the criteria to be diagnosed with synesthesia is that your misfiring connections are consistent eg. If the number 11 is always a bright red, if a flat square object always tastes bitter etc

There's nothing dangerous about it that I'm aware of. I had a friend who was diagnosed very late in life with it after reading an article. She had just assumed everyone saw things that way which isn't as strange as it may sound, we all tend to take our perception of the world for granted. It's the age old question of "how do I know that what you call and percieve as the colour red isn't actually what I call and percieve as the coour blue" argument.

It does actually seem to have some benefits. I think their are tales of people with synesthesia having an affinity for maths or particualarly the arts.

Right brain disturbances are fascinating. Neuro psychology for a long time ignored this part of the brain in their studies assuming it to be more primitve than the left. It turned out however to be the part of the brain that deals with how we percieve the world and, as such, any disturbances in it can have fantastical outcomes, many of which neuropsychology has very little understanding of. Try reading Oliver Sacks "The man who mistook his wife for a hat" for excellent and insightful case studies in to some of the strangest cases one particual neuropsychologist encountered over his lengthy career.

16

Anyone like me....

by Keepitsane in

jw
friends

not feeling like there life's been affected that negatively by their involvement with jw's?.

i ask because while i do believe being raised a jehovahs witness has probably done me some considerable emotional damage, i still can't imagaine it hurt me anymore (and in a lot of cases i'm sure it did far less damage) than the average non jw upbringing.

i had no debilitating diseases, no broken family, kind and loving parents etc...you get my point though?.

Keepitsane

Well,obviously I didn't mean any of you folks!

Seriously though, thanks all for the warm welcome. I really am appreciative you didn't judge me too harshly on my initial message, I do have a habit of shooting my mouth off and just scanning messages on this forum had made me curious (because it was incredible to have so many people in one place with experiences I've never really been able to discuss before) and, at the same time, somewhat angry.

I want to clarify that my anger wasn't directed at anyone specific. I think I was channeling my stoic but deeply unsympathetic and intollerant grandmother for some of that first post! I do have a problem with people who complain unnecesarily and at length (That's just me I'm afraid) but mainly what I was angry about was the way some of the comments ( and it was a minority) made me feel about myself .I was hoping explaining my friends situation with his depression might give you a little insight in to what I was banging on about.

Nor was it meant to be some condescending message to all of you to "get over it" (although I think on every forum of this kind there will be a small but vocal group of attention seekers and drama queens who really should just get over themselves, I mean do they really...OK, really gotta learn to self censor if I'm gonna be posting here!).) I mean, most of you have just shown yourselves to be more reasonable, compassionate and articulate people than me. Your replies were all very much appreciated and I understand the need to vent and discuss shared experiences with anonymity from time to time.

I do have concerns about certain forums allowing people to wallow in their chosen role as "victim" indefinitely by constantly dwelling on bad things that happened but, having heard from several of you, it would seem it doesn't have to be that way

Anyways, it's nice to make your aquaintances. Thanks again for chatting and I hope to speak to at least some of you all sometime soon

16

Anyone like me....

by Keepitsane in

jw
friends

not feeling like there life's been affected that negatively by their involvement with jw's?.

i ask because while i do believe being raised a jehovahs witness has probably done me some considerable emotional damage, i still can't imagaine it hurt me anymore (and in a lot of cases i'm sure it did far less damage) than the average non jw upbringing.

i had no debilitating diseases, no broken family, kind and loving parents etc...you get my point though?.

Keepitsane

NOT feeling like there life's been affected that negatively by their involvement with JW's?

I ask because while I do believe being raised a Jehovahs Witness has probably done me some considerable emotional damage, I still can't imagaine it hurt me anymore (and in a lot of cases I'm sure it did far less damage) than the average non JW upbringing

I had no debilitating diseases, no broken family, kind and loving parents etc...You get my point though?

While I clearly don't believe that JW's have the truth I have no problem with them believing it. I think some people have a need to believe in SOMETHING and it fills a space in their life. Hell, I think a lot of them know it wouldn't hold up to close scrutiny but don't want to go too far down that road 'cos then they'll loose a whole bunch of coping mechanisms. I was always a stubborn one and a thinker and as such it reached a point when I was 18 (compounded by personal problems with elders in my congreagtion) where I knew categorically it wasn't true and no longer feared repercussions.

Anyway, I met some good JW's and some loathsome ones in my time but the same goes the people in my life since and I have been left feeling pleased that I have some sense of spirituality even if I'm very wary of where to direct it!

The problem is (I hope this isn't offensive to people here but knowing me and my fat mouth it's gonna be!) having read some of the posts I'm left with a little anger towards some of you.

To deviate for a minute, a friend of mine, previously unflappably happy, went through a fairly bad bout of depression once. When he finally started to recover he explained to me it had been triggered by his brother. His brother had recently had a breakdown and, while undergoing therapy, the therapist had told him that his problems all stemmed from his mother and father. My friend was told this and what his mind absorbed from this was "We have the same parents, if my brothers had a breakdown because of them then I must be completely screwed".

That's kind of how I felt reading through some of your posts. I feel fine but some of you seem traumatised and/or in need of extensive help or reproramming which in turn makes me wonder if my general happy demeanor is a cover for something far darker going on inside my brainspace. Obviously some of you had far worse experiences than me. It also sounds like some of you like the drama and the whinging.

I know these kind of comments won't neccesarily ingratiate me to a lot of you but I think it's important to move forwards with your lives and while a little talk can help you get perspective and vent anger, constantly revisitng your past is just plain depressing. The best thing about your past is that it's already happened, OK?

So, a bit long, unfocussed but those are my intial thoughts. It's still nice to have found a forum populated by people with similar experiences (being a JW did make up 18 years of my life which is still the majority of it ya know!)

34

When you receive an ...shepherding visit, why not express appreciation ..?

by jgnat in

"when you receive an encouraging shepherding visit, why not express appreciation for it?

" wt may 1, 2006, p. 21 pp.

sorry for stealing your thunder blondie, but this suggestion really struck home.

Keepitsane

OK, I'm new here but I remember my final shepherding call beacuse it was the final contact I ever had with any JW's who weren't my immediate family.

I'd moved in one of those small, in-bred narrow minded little village congregations after spending the best part of my young life living in London.

The elders there were on a power trip and got on my case fairly quickly. Even though my landlord at the time, a ministerial servant was later convicted as a paodophile (he was abusing many of the young boys in the congregation and it seems many of the elders had some idea this was going on) they decided that it was a bigger issue that I had visited a local pub with a witness friend a couple of times. This being a sleepy village ithe pub in question was about as debauched as an episode of "Last of the Summer Wine" but they called me upstairs anyway after a meeting to discuss this problem with all the elders.

They told me they didn't think it was the kind of place a young JW should visit. I asked them if any of them had ever been there. They said no. I told them I beleived they were wrong (I was 18 and stubborn at this point!) about it and that it was a perfectly civil place to visit. I mean, it was hardly a nightclub or bawdy bar!

At this point one of the elders (who was later disfellowshipped for picking up prostitutes) lost his temper and yelled at me for daring to question them.

I left the meeting a little shocked by this but thought no more of it until the next meeting when it was announced there woud be a "special talk" . To cut a long story short I was marked, blatantly, badly and improperly. Several of my friends (including ministerial servants and not all youngsters either) told me they would ignore the direction but I was cut up by this bizarre turn and abuse of power.

The following week I was made redundant from my job and, being at my wits end, skipped a meeting to go visit a friend in another town. While in that town I was jumped by several local headcases and beaten up.

I returned to the congregation the following week covered in marks and bruises and obviously just seriously in need of a little TLC

A couple of days later I recieved a shepherding visit from two elders. They told me in no uncertain terms that if I hadn't been so wayward and skipped a meeting I wouldn't have been beaten up, it was a just punishment so to speak.

I kicked them out of my house and never entertained a witness or went to a meeting ever again.