I've struggled with putting my finger on what woke me because my situation was kind of backwards.
I was a born in who later in life decided that I didn't want anything to do with Witnesses based on their treatment of my family. It was a few years after that when I no longer believed in the teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses.
I learned from my father, who professes to be of the annointed, that there are circuit and district overseers who make it their life's mission to disfellowship those who profess to be of the annointed. He was one that was targetted, but we moved to another state before it happened.
About a year later I learned from my father that when he moved the family out of state our future presiding overseer went around the congregation telling families not to associate with us when we moved in. I was in that congregation from age 13 to 35. Sure we had friends in the congregation, but there were some things that struck me odd that all made sense when my father told me that. My best friend married my sister. When he proposed to my sister his parents flipped out! As for me, I could never find any local single sisters that would entertain the idea of dating me. All my girlfriends lived over 100 miles away. It all made sense when my father confided in me.
Science was a big help. I knew that the Biblical flood of Noah's Day was physically impossible. Why the dinosaurs were not on the Ark was always a good questions. My parents taught me that dinosaurs were created to make the Earth ready for everything else.
I finally decided to chase my dream and become a police officer. When in the police academy we covered deadly force the instructor covered Romans 13:1-7 which he said clergy call the "Police Officer Verse." When I read it with that in mind I had to ask myself how could anyone say it was wrong for a Christian to be a police officer if they are God's ministers and God gives them a sword to carry out his will?
In the end, it was this website that finally opened my eyes to what a crazy cult I spent most of my life in.