Posts by flipper

25

Can a full healing from cult ever be accomplished

by Chook in

can all indoctrination leave a person , or does it linger in background till death..

flipper

CHOOK - Great thread topic. I feel that up to about 99 % of cult indoctrination can leave an individual - but it's like a person having been bitten by a shark or a mountain lion - a scar will always be there reminding the person of how he or she was either physically , mentally, or emotionally abused. I feel that we as ex-JW's carry around with us various levels of PTSD ( some folks more than others ) that we will have to address once we exit the JW cult or anybody else exiting other mind control cults as well.

I was born and raised in the JW's from birth and exited 13 years ago at age 44 finally. I still have things I'm working on in attaining a completely free thinking, open minded view of life as I've gradually lost the " black and white " or " either it's this or that no in between " type thinking that was drilled into us by the WT Society. Life is chalk full of GRAY situations that we have to adapt to and learn from - or life will eat us up.

What's helped me to move on from the JW's is reading A LOT of books dealing with mind control tactics used by cults like the JW's, reading books on psychology dealing with controlling people or controlling personalities, Ray Franz's books helped as well, and reading lots of books about history and how oppression has existed in all world societies for years and how people fought against being oppressed. Like histories of the Native Americans, African Americans in this country and I've learned from being actively involved in Ancestry .com by reading histories of my ancient relatives in the 1300's to 1500's with the wars of Scotland and England - seeing how these people dealt with oppression and trying to be free themselves.

I've taken up interests that refresh my inner soul like playing guitar and writing songs which heal from within. I just appreciate every day of life more these days and realize that this life may very well be the only one we get- so I live it each day to the fullest. Developing close relationships with my inactive or ex-JW nieces and nephews to be there for them and them for me is fulfilling as my older JW siblings shun their own children. My relationships are deeper with my wife, my adult son after being out of the JW's for 13 years than any of the relationships I had as a JW - and those relationships were fickle, fake, not real. Now I have lots of EX-JW friends I can turn to in times of need here on the board and elsewhere who recognize the REAL me and treat me with authentic caring and respect and me to them. I never got that respect as a JW.

So - yes- we CAN move on and have a better life. But it doesn't come by osmosis. It takes effort on our part to reprogram our brain neurotransmitters with DIFFERENT information than the JW shit that was shoveled into our minds and replace it with productive, good information. Kind of my view on this subject

18

Is It Really All That Surprising that Kevin Didn't Go Into the Bunker?

by Wild_Thing in

jw
friends

just look at his history!

w00 8/15 pp.

8-11 - the watchtower—2000: "kevin needed an additional $900, so he decided to sell his 16 two-year-old pigeons.

flipper

Kevin rocks ! To hell with the bunker people, they're freaking idiots ! Peace out, Mr. Flipper

11

CBC: Jehovah's Witness shunning court case shines spotlight on rare practice

by Simon in

jehovah's witness shunning court case shines spotlight on rare practice.

hutterites, first nations among groups that have used shunning and banishment.

by dave dormer, cbc news posted: sep 19, 2016 6:30 pm mt .

flipper

SIMON- Thanks for posting this article. Interesting and a good thing that the courts supported the people being shunned in this case- perhaps it will either set a precedent or at least get courts and judges to start looking at shunning as an abhorrent act - which it is.

A quote in the article by the writer though that this court case , " has brought the RARELY USED practice of religious shunning into the spotlight " is a curious comment. I agree the court case HAS brought religious shunning into the spotlight. But the writer shows his lack of knowledge regarding the practice of shunning by saying religious shunning is " rarely used ". Mormons , Scientologists, Catholics, Jehovah's witnesses, Amish, Hutterites , I mean the list goes on and on of many forms of religion worldwide that use shunning to punish or cut off members who disagree with their respective religion's views.

That little comment inserted by the writer saying religious shunning is " rarely used " - indicates to me that he's trying to make organized religion appear better than it really is- that only " marginal " groups use religious shunning claiming it " rarely " happens.

But other than that, it's a great article which I hope gets the public' s attention towards the common practice of religious shunning

4

Your discipline as a JW child was it effective, made you a better person?

by James Mixon in

how has not sparing the rod(raised jw) change the way you discipline your children today?.

an incident that happen last week with the grandkids made me think about how i raised my kids.. my wife daughter and her family.

the 8 year old the first time a friend will stay the week end so he was very .

flipper

At least your 8 year old grandson didn't write f-u-c-k on the walls. Jesus Christ. I think the fact that he admitted doing it should have been commended by his mom and he should have been shown appreciation by his mom for his honesty even though he wouldn't admit it at first. By disciplining him to the extreme- this mother is setting up this boy for future offenses he commits - perhaps serious ones - where he might NEVER tell his mom about what he does or he'll get disciplined severely. Just my 2 cents from having raised 3 kids to adulthood myself. It's more of a control thing for the mother but it stunts open communication acting arbitrarily like that.

I think a more appropriate discipline would have been to have the 8 year old clean off the writing on the wall and explain to him that even though he was trying to be funny by writing " fart " - it's not funny being destructive to his mom & dad's and his personal property. Not letting him have his friend stay over or writing 100 times " I won't lie " is excessively extreme in my opinion.

As regards your opening title on the thread my elder dad's whipping me with a belt didn't make me a better person growing up- it just made me NOT want to communicate with my dad is all. I figured if I shared my hopes and dreams with him he'd never value my opinion anyway so why open up to him ? His whole goal in life was to make me feel worthless anyway- but I was lucky to have a JW mother who valued me and communicated with me. I give HER credit for me turning out as a positive adult.

So in my opinion - keeping the lines of communication OPEN with kids is the important thing- not dominating them. Teach them, train them- yes- but do it with kindness so you respect them and leave their dignity intact

182

Major congregational quake in Southern California

by Hecce in

this notice is not official yet and it should be confidential until released thru the proper channels.

a friend of mine told me about a huge elders meeting in southern california.

the subject was the relocation and dissolution of some congregations; it seems that this is the result of some project that has been going on for some time and is going to be implemented right now.. please let me know if this is happening all over the country?.

flipper

LANDY- I'm not at liberty to give out my source on the Bank of America information as I was told to keep my source confidential - however this person is in the industry and is reliable. You may be able to google this info- I don't know, you'll have to check it out

22

Do not enjoy life now!

by life is to short in

ok so i was stupid and looked at the text for today, i do not know why i did it.

i lost a couple of brain cells and put myself into an even deeper depression over it.

it was just that my husband had it out and i thought what can it hurt, wondering what they are up to.

flipper

Good thread Life Is Too Short, I'm getting in late on this one as I've been pretty busy.

But I always remember when I used to attend meetings years ago the JW elders would say over the platform or in the publications, " don't worry about your current life, because this isn't the REAL life, the REAL life will come in the future in Paradise. Plan for THAT life. "

Comments like that always used to piss me off as well. I mean there IS NO such thing as a " paradise " anyway ! Now that I know that fact a person could very well waste their whole life waiting for a pipedream or illusion that never comes wasting their current energies, passions, or dreams by never using them in the here and now ! What a waste !

When I found out we were being lied to I promised myself I'd never waste another minute of my life on this planet ever again ! And you know what my friend- you should do the same. Not because I'm doing it - but because this life may in reality BE the only life we will ever have.

It reminds me of that scene in the movie " Back to the Future 3 " where the Doc gets off the train and Marty and his girlfriend show him a blank piece of paper where they were hoping the future was written for them. They tell the Doc, " Doc we were looking at this paper and it's blank, what does that mean ? " He said, " Of course it's blank ! It means your future hasn't been written yet ! Nobody's has ! So go and make your future a GOOD one ! "

As an ex-JW I'll never forget that scene from that movie- it helped empower me to see that as an EX-JW I DO have the ability or power or control now to make my life better than the miserable life I had as a mind controlled JW. And you have that power and control now also my friend. Make the best use of the years you have left on this planet to be happy and enjoy life ! And we and others are here as a support to you in your journey. Take care, Peace out, Mr. Flipper

182

Major congregational quake in Southern California

by Hecce in

this notice is not official yet and it should be confidential until released thru the proper channels.

a friend of mine told me about a huge elders meeting in southern california.

the subject was the relocation and dissolution of some congregations; it seems that this is the result of some project that has been going on for some time and is going to be implemented right now.. please let me know if this is happening all over the country?.

flipper

HECCE- Interesting thread, thanks for posting it. This trend is happening everywhere right now- especially in the United States as I have been made aware of numerous kingdom halls going up for sale in Washington, California, etc. My son in law ( a JW ) expressed concern that in his little mountain community congregation - that the elders were saying there isn't enough money to do repairs so the WT Society was telling his elders to consider selling the kingdom hall property and building.

This annoyed him as he told me then he and my daughter would have to drive 30 miles south or 30 miles north to just attend the nearest kingdom hall ! He just shook his head - not seeming too fond of the idea.

I truly believe we are going to see the " true dishonest colors " and greed come forth very visibly with the WT leaders in the next 5 years or so. This organization is being hammered with child abuse lawsuits all over the world, and WT Society's credit rating has gone to shit with Bank of America who blackballed them for defaulting on construction loans, which probably means they cannot get credit with other major lenders now for construction. Which is another reason they've had to stop construction all over the world and send workers home- except of course not their upstate New York facility - that's priority where the " big boys " will live - so it's considered more important.

These WT leaders are such dishonest weasels it's not even funny. And the sad thing about it - is rank & file JW's are none the wiser. They are having the wool pulled over their eyes- and they don't even realize it. Really a tragedy

22

Do not enjoy life now!

by life is to short in

ok so i was stupid and looked at the text for today, i do not know why i did it.

i lost a couple of brain cells and put myself into an even deeper depression over it.

it was just that my husband had it out and i thought what can it hurt, wondering what they are up to.

flipper

The religion is run by predators. As you know from experience, dear LITS.

They will do whatever's necessary to provide for their own comfort and to protect themselves from the many scandals they have created.

They are always putting out this kind of pre-emptive damage control by brainwashing:

"Don't think about anything except the paradise!

Especially since so many elder types at the lower levels are freaking out about what all the scandals will do to their lives - we need to lay it on REAL strong. Donate all your time and money so we at the top can live comfortably and pay off all the child abuse lawsuits without dipping into our own personal funds in the Caymans,

Jehovah will reward you, because as you know, he really likes criminals who do horrible deeds and then suck up to him for forgiveness. You know, like King David, and Eli's sons. Hey, works for us!"

They are the worst. Mrs. Flipper

7

Australian freelance writer on The Everyday Life of a Jehovah`s Witness.

by smiddy in

jw
friends

lewis edwards is an australian freelance journalist / writer who has written a series of articles about jehovah`s witnesses in "the news hub" , the latest on the 9/15/ 2016. very well written on " the everyday life of a jehovahs witness".

i reccomend you read it.. jarrod booth also has an extremely interesting article in this publication .

"the news hub".

flipper

Excellent articles. This is what the public needs to know about the jw religion.

Mrs. Flipper

43

How Will Armageddon Begin?

by Cold Steel in

and how long will it last?

and who will come after that, yahweh, as the old testament says or jesus, as the new testament says?

the scriptures say he'll come to the mount of olives, but surely that's a spiritual mount of olives.

flipper

The parade picture makes me crack up every time.

I wish I knew how to hack into the watchtower's printers - and put that in place of one of their horrible Armageddon pictures. At least the kids wouldn't be so traumatized.

Mrs. Flipper