FREEMINDFADE- Exactly, we are all survivors. Very true. JW life gave us lemons- so after exiting we make kick -ass lemonade ! LOL
flipper
JoinedPosts by flipper
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20
Are we victims of abuse? Should we even think of ourselves that way?
by nicolaou inabuse is such a serious word and i'd hate to use it lightly so if anyone reading this has suffered physical or sexual abuse please know that i absolutely do not equate religious abuse with your suffering.
that being said, many of us were lied to and manipulated for decades.
this cultic 'abuse' has borne fruit in shattered relationships, broken families and estranged children.
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flipper
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Are we victims of abuse? Should we even think of ourselves that way?
by nicolaou inabuse is such a serious word and i'd hate to use it lightly so if anyone reading this has suffered physical or sexual abuse please know that i absolutely do not equate religious abuse with your suffering.
that being said, many of us were lied to and manipulated for decades.
this cultic 'abuse' has borne fruit in shattered relationships, broken families and estranged children.
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flipper
Hell yes we were all abused as JW's. Those who don't want to admit that- are sticking their heads in the sand and lying to themselves - farting in denial.
We were coerced to believe we would " live forever " which is a lie ( check obituaries and Ancestry.com - no one has EVER lived forever- everybody dies. )
So emotionally we were lied to as " eternal life " was held as a carrot in front of us to manipulate us to believe the OTHER BS doctrines the WT Society taught. And if we disagreed or doubted we were to be looked down upon, cut off from associating with other JW's who believed the lies. That's mental and emotional abuse.
If THAT wasn't enough a good number of us were either physically abused by being murdered by the WT Society for not taking life saving blood transfusions because we followed their orders , being sexually molested by elders yet it wasn't reported to police authorities, or in the case of JW's in Malawi being murdered for not buying a 25 cent political party card following orders from WT Society leaders. Not to mention thousands of suicides due to the shunning policy of the WT Society. So physical abuse is rampant in the WT Society.
WT Society is a criminal organization which is guilty of crimes against mankind in a mental, emotional, and physical manner in which they've duped millions of JW's into trusting them to deliver them peace and life eternal. WT Society has delivered nothing but pain, shattered dreams, illusions, divided families, and death all for the sake of keeping a money grubbing organization alive that masquerades as a religion. Clear enough picture ? Peace out, Mr. Flipper
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"Why Did JWs Ignore Princes Drug Additctions?" by Barbara Anderson
by AndersonsInfo inover a month ago, the associated press in minneapolis reported that counterfeit pills were found at prince’s home.
some contained powerful opioid fentanyl, a synthetic drug 50 times stronger than heroin found in dozens of pills.
these and other mislabeled drugs were found in luggage belonging to the late music star.
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"Why Did JWs Ignore Princes Drug Additctions?" by Barbara Anderson
by AndersonsInfo inover a month ago, the associated press in minneapolis reported that counterfeit pills were found at prince’s home.
some contained powerful opioid fentanyl, a synthetic drug 50 times stronger than heroin found in dozens of pills.
these and other mislabeled drugs were found in luggage belonging to the late music star.
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Question about an elder and if I am crazy
by life is to short inok so i have a question.
i was a very, very true believer until i saw the child molesters in my hall and how that whole thing was handled.. my husband is older than i am and had been an elder for 12 when we married.
so fast forward to 06, we are in a hall where i thought all the elders were ok at the worst and great at the best.
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flipper
It is incredibly mean and cowardly to undermine a person's sanity and self worth. Those people are beyond contempt.
LITS, you are geographically isolated from any real friends, and trying to fight with a bunch of piranhas. Pretty small and worthless people, but lots of them.
I think you have a lot more trauma to work through than most of us. Like combining the bad experiences of 20 of us. It will take some work and counseling to disconnect from these toxic people but I am sure you will, and soon.
It was bad enough that you were raised as a child with constant abuse both physical and emotional from your parents and jws.
Then to have the undermining of your self confidence continued by your passive-aggressive husband - he not only encouraged other jws to discount you as a person, but has gaslighted you, telling you your thinking is skewed, your memory is faulty. He either "doesn't remember" some godawful shit he did, or it was a long time ago, or it was no big deal.
Well it was all a really big deal. You recently interviewed several counselors and found a good one. It takes some courage to dive into this shit. It all comes back to the surface to be dealt with. Not loads of fun.
Knowing you for 9 years now, I have no doubt that a lot of people would have been driven nuts early on by what you went through. It is something that you have kept your kindness, honesty and sense of humor intact.
Keep on keepin' on! Talk soon. Mrs. Flipper
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My JW mother asks me to be 2nd on her "Medical Directive" card
by OnTheWayOut inmy mother's parents, my grandparents were not jw.
my jw mother had medical power of attorney and her husband (never jw) was secondary on that.
when grandma needed blood, mom let her husband sign off.
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flipper
OTWO- It's interesting that your mom doesn't " want the elders making decisions " . To me that indicates that she'd possibly WANT a blood transfusion if she needed it. Otherwise - she would have had an elder sign her blood card. So if it were my mom telling me this- I'd go ahead and sign as a 2nd on her blood card and do what's necessary to save her life in emergency situations. More important it is for your mom to live and save her life than to answer to a fantasy mind control cult. Good luck with the situation
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Question about an elder and if I am crazy
by life is to short inok so i have a question.
i was a very, very true believer until i saw the child molesters in my hall and how that whole thing was handled.. my husband is older than i am and had been an elder for 12 when we married.
so fast forward to 06, we are in a hall where i thought all the elders were ok at the worst and great at the best.
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flipper
LITS- You're a great friend to me and my wife. We consider you family. It's truly a huge injustice that you've been suffering all these years. You've received lots of caring , fantastic comments from people on the board. You know we will be here for you through thick and thin.
You aren't crazy- you are suffering from PTSD which many of us have suffered after being through various abuses in this evil criminal organization. Some have suffered MORE abuses like yourself because like you mentioned you haven't had any support system for years as well as not receiving support from your JW husband. He is still under control of the elders and in fear of what will happen if he stops going to meetings. YOU don't have to have the same fear he has- you know and realize the WT Society is a corrupt organization- your husband has not admitted that to himself- he thinks these problems are isolated situations. As some here mentioned- these child abuse problems are happening in the THOUSANDS of cases worldwide as we are sitting here - it's a pandemic which indicates HOW corrupt the WT Society is top to bottom as one poster wrote.
Like Hoser wrote before me- " This cult is crazy and sick. It rewards abusive individuals by enabling them and promoting them. " That's really the point in a nutshell. It's like- we can't fix a broken organization that is corrupt from the top down. We have to ask ourselves - Could Jim Jones be fixed ? No. Could David Koresh be fixed ? No. Charles Manson ? No. Ted Jaracz or Anthony Morris III ? No. These types of sociopathic individuals do not believe in the freedom of mind of people like you and me- their goals in life were and are to CONTROL and ABUSE the freedoms in men, women, and children and they teach their henchmen ( the elders and C.O. 's ) to think EXACTLY as they think. One of the reasons for elders schools- right ? They aren't going to change- they are unfixable . But you can change by not letting them have ANY power in your life anymore.
I know it's hard . I've never ever suffered sexual abuse like you have my friend- but as I write this I honestly have JW fanatic family members still alive who shun me and treat me with utter disrespect . They act like I don't exist. They've never valued my opinions on anything in life. And these people who are psychological vampires in your life where you live have not ever treated you with the respect you deserve either. You fully need to realize this and cut them out of your life. It may mean cutting ties with people you've known for a long time. Only you know how much of this you can take before you implode mentally and emotionally. I feel you've gotten to that point
You are at a crossroad in life that many of us face at times and my wife and I will support you in whatever decision you make. But please keep your emotional, physical, and mental health as a priority in your decision making process. We're here for you as well as friends if you'd like to chat, you know that. We care very much for you and our biggest hope for you is to finally find happiness. And as you know now- it takes courage to attain that goal in life many times. Hang in there, take care, love and hugs to you , Mr. & Mrs. Flipper
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Adult survivor of sexual abuse as a child
by life is to short ini showed the video from the midweek meeting of september 12th to my counselor to get her take on it.
she said that it clearly was a propaganda video and was appalled that it was shown to an audience that had small children in it.
she said that they could have been way more generic in their way of portraying the women as having been abused.. the subject of sexual abuse and the way the video zeroed in on it would have small children asking questions that really did not need to be addressed.
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flipper
And those elders make me sick - they are the worst.
They all know damned well what you have been through as a child, and how badly you have been treated as an adult (usually for trying to get jws to do the right thing.)
They are so "ethically challenged" that they are still trying to drive you crazy enough to shut you up, to save their own butts. They are starting to see that all their shenanigans over the years may just get them in big trouble. I think those creeps would be happy to see you in the psych ward with your sleeves tied together.
They are pretty pretty stupid if they don't realize that you are not the only person who knows about them. I wouldn't be surprised if they end up in a public scandal.
At least one of them is way more likely to end up with his own sleeves tied together.
Mrs. Flipper
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Adult survivor of sexual abuse as a child
by life is to short ini showed the video from the midweek meeting of september 12th to my counselor to get her take on it.
she said that it clearly was a propaganda video and was appalled that it was shown to an audience that had small children in it.
she said that they could have been way more generic in their way of portraying the women as having been abused.. the subject of sexual abuse and the way the video zeroed in on it would have small children asking questions that really did not need to be addressed.
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flipper
LITS, that video is sooo bad. Really shows what they are all about - damage control, cover up, mind control. They don't give a damn about kids.
It is so sad to see children born into this sick cult. A lot of jw parents will be in denial about all the pedophiles running free in the hall.
Mrs. Flipper
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Can a full healing from cult ever be accomplished
by Chook incan all indoctrination leave a person , or does it linger in background till death..
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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