Such a great site, I came across it a few months back when I started my quest for truth - particularly I was trying to find a scriptural basis for the 'paradise earth' and came across your article on the very subject which articulated all the concerns I had beautifully. The blood transfusion article and the Noahs flood article have also been more helpful to me than you could ever imagine. I am really greatful for this site, its made me realise that my concerns were real and well founded and that I'm not crazy or spiritually weak. Thanks JWfacts!
brainmelt
JoinedPosts by brainmelt
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40
Did reading Jwfacts help you? Please take a moment to say thanks..
by The Quiet One init seems as though so many of the stories of people who are now mentally free that i read on here involved reading jwfacts.com at some point along the way.. he basically saved my sanity (questionable, i know!
), and was never as sensational and garish as other sites which immediately scared me away.
why not take a minute out of your day to say thanks for any difference that jwfacts made to your life, and tell us what it was that helped you?...
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how do you cope with the stress of fading?
by brainmelt ini'm really struggling with it.
i've been learning the ttatt for the past 6 months now and i've been inadvertantly fading - either one of us or the children have had coughs/colds/flu/chicken pox/stress over the past 3 months which has meant we've missed a lot of meetings and field service with good reason.
we've only been out in service twice this year, so far no ones mentioned it to us but i'm waiting for our group overseer to bring it up anytime soon.
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brainmelt
Thank you all for your lovely comments, it really means so much to have all you lovely friends on here who understand what i'm going through. I am taking on board all your suggestions. I really need to try and take things slowly (difficult when you just want out asap) and to try and relax and breath. I had started doing yoga a few months ago but i've been feeling too stressed to even do that so I'll try again.
Billy: Armageddon isn't coming tomorrow with baby Jesus slicing you open if you leave the JWs or if you stay for the time being. And if anyone gives you a hard time about JW inactivity just tell them that you've been suffering from "surprise diarrhea" or "explosive flatulence" and the doctor has recommended that you stay away from crowds until you find medication that works. - this genuinely made me laugh out loud. If all fails and no one leaves me alone, I will have to use this one for sure
I've woken up this morning with a sore chest and I feel like i'm coming down with something yet again. My husband is the same, we are feeling completely run down. I know that for my own health now and my future health, I need to take a break and be kind to myself and husband needs to do the same. Stress isn't good for the body and I'm beginnning to fear how it could affect my health in the future.
I think some professional counselling is in order, I'm 30 years old and having to start all over and change my whole mind set. Its both terrifying and extremely exciting all at the same time.
Thank you all again for your lovely suggestions
Brainmelt x
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Are you Proud ?
by Phizzy inwhen we were jw's pride was usually cast in a bad light, linked with being "haughty" and coming before a "fall" etc.. but taking pride in certain things is actually a very good thing, i am proud of my children, they have grown in to fine adults who everybody talks well of, they had the sense never to be baptised jw's, i am proud of that too.. i am proud of my achieving a full education since leaving, i haven't done a degree course due to lack of funds etc, but i am now very well read.. i am proud that i am now a better human, kinder, more empathetic, less judgemental, contributing to the community, voting, donating blood etc etc.
i am proud to be associated with jwn and with aawa, i am proud to know you all !.
what are you proud of ?
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brainmelt
I'm incredibly proud of my two beautiful children
I'm proud to have control of my own mind at last
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how do you cope with the stress of fading?
by brainmelt ini'm really struggling with it.
i've been learning the ttatt for the past 6 months now and i've been inadvertantly fading - either one of us or the children have had coughs/colds/flu/chicken pox/stress over the past 3 months which has meant we've missed a lot of meetings and field service with good reason.
we've only been out in service twice this year, so far no ones mentioned it to us but i'm waiting for our group overseer to bring it up anytime soon.
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brainmelt
I'm really struggling with it. I've been learning the TTATT for the past 6 months now and I've been inadvertantly fading - either one of us or the children have had coughs/colds/flu/chicken pox/stress over the past 3 months which has meant we've missed a lot of meetings and field service with good reason. We've only been out in service twice this year, so far no ones mentioned it to us but I'm waiting for our group overseer to bring it up anytime soon. My husband knows I have doubts, he doesn't know I'm on here, he doesn't know the extent of it yet. I was always the spiritual head and now that I'm not making any effort, he's not really bothering either. He always invents an excuse on a Saturday morning so we never go out, he won't go to a meeting alone. The other night after a few glasses of wine, he mentioned something about a couple in our old hall who fell away and who apparently wrote a letter to the elders asking that they don't be contacted, he said, why be so direct, why not just drift away? I can't remember his exact words but he said he feels the same as me but that if armaggedon did arrive in 20 years after all, he'd kick himself but feel really happy that his parents had managed to make it. I don't know where to go next with him really. I don't want to scare him but also want to encourage his doubts and lazy ways.
I'm still completely terrified of how to approach things with my family (I have both parents and 2 sisters and a brother still in plus inlaws) and also how to approach things with the elders if and when they finally notice that we aren't very regular. I've missed so many meetings that it feels like it would be easy enough to just stop now. I have days where I just cry all day - specifically Fridays, where I'm dreading the weekends - meetings/ministry/guilt of missing ministry. I am on this site far too much but i am finally getting answers to all my questions. I dont' know how to switch off, I have so much to learn and I'm trying to learn the entire history of the world/the bible/the WTS/evolution all at once and as my user name suggests, my brain feels like its melting.
How do you deal with it all, how can I cope with all the stress? The only good side is that my children (aged 2 and 4) are athiests, as in, they have no need for god or religion yet, they have yet to be brainwashed, they are completely cool about everything, they love dinosaurs and animals like me and aren't in the slightest bit bothered about not being at the meetings.
Any advice is much appreciated. I love this site so much, its completely opening my eyes and you are all helping me enormously but I feel like I'm going nuts! x
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When You Learned TTATT, the truth about the truth(tm) How Did It Make You Feel?
by LoisLane looking for Superman in.
i felt stunned.
i felt betrayed.. just lois.
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brainmelt
Embarrased - that i've ever identified myself as a JW and embarrassed that anyone knows that I'm a JW
Angry - that I've been lied to all my life and made to feel guilty over nothing
Depressed - where do I turn to, how do I tell my family?
Scared - as above
Confused - as above
Happy - that I can think my own thoughts, I don't believe in Armaggedon, the devil, the 'paradise' anymore
Stuck - as to how I get out unscathed
Excited - about the future, the unknown and being allowed to live my own life, my one life, this one, not an imaginary future one.
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Differences Between JWs in the US and Europe
by BU2B inthere are many cultural differences between the general population of the us and europe, what about jws?
i have heard about such things as beards being allowed, movies that a jw cant watch in the us or would be frowned upon watching being ok, same with tv shows, and even the way they dress in public.
seems more laid back over there if this is true.. any truth to this?
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brainmelt
I'm in the UK and beards are frowned upon in a lot of congregations, others are less strict. Higher education is discouraged in talks/WT publications the same as anywhere else but a large number of teenagers, including elders children, attend college or university after school, its quite normal and the elders don't lose their positions. Most of the young ones spend their weekends partying -either house parties or pubs/clubs but as long as they keep up appearances at the hall - ministry, answering up, giving talks, then what they do the rest of the time is pretty much overlooked until someone gets caught or does something stupid or confesses. In my old hall, you had to be a MS or elder to even handle the mikes but in my new hall they let any brother who is regular do them.
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New light Watchtower magazine leaked from organization weeks ahead of general release
by cedars inhttp://jwsurvey.org/governing-body-2/new-light-watchtower-magazine-leaked-from-organization-weeks-ahead-of-general-release.
if doctrinal explanations are missing from the article, it is because they are also missing from the magazine.. i would like to give my thanks again to my source for supplying me with the magazine article weeks ahead of its scheduled release.
it showed remarkable courage, because risks were taken.
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brainmelt
Thanks for posting this. If I had doubts about my doubts before, they are all gone now. I felt physically sick after reading this earlier, I can't believe I used to just mindlessly accept all this rubbish before. How dare they try and tell me what to believe.
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When will you NOT go anymore ?
by Phizzy ini ask this of all who know ttatt and yet still attend, i am interested, when will you judge it is the right time not to go to meetings anymore ?.
a big part of me wants to say ".
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brainmelt
I was asking myself that same question the other day. I really don't know. I've missed a lot of meetings recently due to the children being ill or needing to go to bed early on week nights. We have only made about 4 or 5 Sunday meetings and no Thursday meetings at all in the last couple of months & done field service once during that time and I was thinking it would be easy enough to just stop going now... But I'm a wimp too. I don't feel mentally ready to face the elders. I'm still not brave enough to tell my family although I plan to tell my sister soon that I have a few doubts, just to prepare her a bit that I might stop going soon. Plus we have a few things coming up soon that would be really noticable if I missed them - memorial, assembly and CO visit. I want to be out by the end of the year but don't know if I can last that long.
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Seven Thousand Year Creative Day still being taught (as of 2005)
by VM44 inhere is a photo of a gilead instructor (br.
liverance) teaching a class on chronology.. the photo appears in a blog entry dated 5-21-2005.. note the "6,000" and "1,000" periods in the timeline drawn on the whiteboard.. i thought the 7,000 year creative day was no longer taught, but apparently it still is at gilead, at least in the year 2005.. (picture cannot be embedded here for some reason, so here is the link to it).
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ydnht0xya-4/sbukuolyzei/aaaaaaaaacs/t-rgxaammbg/s1600-h/chronology+%28br.+liverance%29.jpg.
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brainmelt
As the Creative days must be of the same length, to be called days, where does that leave their calculation for the length of each day ?
I would say it leaves it up the famous creek without a paddle if they wish to engender some urgency about the closeness of the end of the 7th day, that must be millions of years away !Exactly Phizzy, I totally agree, there's no logic.
Even if they now teach that the earth is millions of years old, they still teach that humans have only been around for 6000 years, despite human remains, art work and tools that have been unearthed that date back much much further than that. They will only agree with science if it seems to harmonise with the bible, anything else must be inaccurate and flawed
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NEW BLOOD CARD DIRECTIVE...
by SkyGreen inthe husband just gave me the new march km (im using it folded up as a coaster at the moment) and a new "blood card" to complete, along with a copy of a set of instructions for how to fill it out and a letter from wts to every baptised publisher.
i said to him "i wont be needing that" and gave it back to him, and he just said, well just throw it out then - no overreaction yay :o) without telling him, about a month ago, (i tore up my existing no blood directive.
our kids have never carried around "identity cards" we were never that diligent about it).
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brainmelt
I've been wondering if its worthwhile carrying some sort of anti-blood directive card with me, something with my signature on that would express my wishes that I'd like to be given a blood transfusion in an emergency situation just in case I end up unconscious with my parents or the HLC trying to convince the docs to let me die. I no longer carry my blood card because its one of the main things that I just can't agree with anymore and the children have never carried theres.
I think its worth having a serious talk with your husband about the blood issue and let him know exactly how you feel. No one in their right mind actualy wants their children to die and you may be able to get him to do some proper research on it all. I had a talk with my husband the other night, turns out that he agrees with the Jewish view on blood - meat should be kosher and blood should be given to preserve a life in an emergency because life is the most important thing. He agreed that the children would get blood if needed and I said that there's no way I'd wait until the doctors got a court order, that I'd agree there and then but that I'd get disfellowshipped for my decision. I noticed that he'd been looking up things about blood transfusion and repentance on the WT library so he is thinking at least.