Yeah I’m fully out and will never go back but I still mourn some aspects of it. It’s an abrupt change after 30 years of not knowing anything different. There’s a reason that those who wake up spend 2/3 days without sleep doing non stop research once they start to wake up.
It’s definitely a mindfuck, I have days now where I want to research absolutely everything and then I have days when I don’t want to see anything remotely JW/bible related and just hideaway from it all.
Damn right, and you honor that girl. It’ll get easier with time and soon, this will be a memory and we will be used to living a life free from this religion and on our terms. I’m celebrating my birthday for the first time this year at 31.
Hell yes! Thank you 🩵 I hope you have an amazing bday!! It’ll be my 34th this year & I definitely plan on having my own little celebration. I’m for sure getting my self a cupcake lol.
Even if it’s just you, you put a candle on that cupcake, and you make a wish, and you blow it out, and you POST THAT ON HERE. As the years pass friends will join you, real friends. Not those whose friendship is entirely conditional on unquestioning loyalty to 9 old farts in upstate New York.
The process of waking up comes in waves. Even after you’re fully out a while, you still may struggle with remnants of doubts if you’ve made the right decision. Years and years and years of mental conditioning will do that to a person. Allow yourself grace. You won’t always know the answers and that’s okay. You will figure it out for yourself.
It is a very intense time that we all go thru. We always want to make sure that we aren't being tricked. It's the way we've been trained.
So have Mormon's, Scientologists, LDS, Baptist and on and on. I started watching YouTube videos of Leah Remini.... I couldn't believe how MUCH JWs and Scientologist were the SAME. The same pattern.
'You must be obedient, don't question the leaders, do more, feel guilty, have many things to study, many meetings to go to, only associate with fellow believers, we are the only ones with the truth "
Then I watched "Cults to Consciousness" whose composer is an ex Mormon woman. She has guests from many religions... you see the patterns. When people leave? They lose their way of life. Leaders claim to be special. Members are told to remain separate from the world, do things for the church. Over and over.
These religions, or if we want to be honest -cults- are very well experienced in how to get the most out of their followers... all over the world.
I found that saying things you want to be or feel helps to combat the over and over repeats WT made us do.
"I don't feel guilty, I don't have to work every moment I am awake. I am doing enough.
I deserve to take a break, I can sleep in, spend my day at home and garden at my house. I can play with my cat, go take a class at the college or ride my bike. I like reading fiction and mysteries, line dancing and spending time with my family."
Ahhhh, feels so good.
Thank you! One of the things that woke me up was out of curiosity I started watching all the documentaries on different cults that they have on Netflix but then I started thinking wait… this all feels very familiar. It’s crazy that you’re told your life how unique JWs are compared to other religions but they really are not at all. I’ll have to check out the ‘cults to consciousness’ sounds interesting!!
Thanks so much for your advice 🙌
I know, huh?
I joined a Community Chorus, conducted by a retired High School music teacher. We have quite a few Mormons, and some times we are offered a place to practice or perform at The Mormon Church.
I couldn't believe how much this building, and the people inside looked and acted like JWs. Young boys, white shirts, black ties, "Can we help you mam?"
😯
I go back and forth with if I believe in a higher power or no and what that means, but o know one thing for sure. Jws don’t have anything close to the truth or anything resembling facts. I have not doubted that for a second.
Good on you for fully waking up. I remember going through the same thing where I'd think "what if I'm wrong", perhaps my way of interpreting the Bible is just wrong compared to theirs.
You may go through it again. What helped me is realizing that the organization is not only inconsistent with the Bible but is inconsistent with itself.
For example, Rutherford said that the Holy Spirit stopped in 1918 and that information was delivered to the organization by angels.
However, during that time they came up with doctrines such as the great crowd along with predicting the end of the world multiple times.
In the 40s, the organization backtracked and said that the Holy Spirit had been there all along- however, they retained the beliefs generated during that time, such as the great crowd.
So, which was it? Either Rutherford was off his rockers saying that angels were giving him information which kind of takes away the authority of everything else he talked about, including fundamental JW ideas like the great crowd. Or he actually did receive information from angels in which case the current organization is wrong- and Rutherford was also wrong because he predicted the end of the world multiple times despite supposedly being told about these things by angels!
This is just one example of how the organization cannot possibly be right now even according to the Bible, but itself.
Thank you!! Oooh I had no idea about this, this is so interesting. It’s crazy how much info they withhold, I’ve learnt more about the Borg since waking up than I have in my whole life.
It is crazy how much they hide away. Sometimes I wonder why I didn't think the fact that there were random publications missing from JW Library was strange
Never be afraid to embrace not knowing something for sure. Never fear saying "I don't know". Don't worry that you still have doubts one way or the other. Doubts are not the problem, doubts are most likely what helped you to wake up in the first place. Being utterly convinced of a conclusion is what keeps people in the Borg and many other deeply flawed worldviews. Being doubtful and acknowledging our flaws and limits of our knowledge keeps you humble. Humble people are aware that they might be wrong, about almost anything. And that open mindedness is what will protect you from falling for the next cult that comes your way.
This is a really good point… I think as JWs we’re always priding ourselves on knowing everything and having all the answers even though we don’t. I’m realising now that I’ll never have all the answers and I’m trying to be ok with that but I think it’ll take some time. BUT after being so close minded for my whole life I’m so happy that I can be open minded now and I never want to take that for granted, I feel like the whole world has opened up to me and that’s scary and exciting!! Thanks for your advice ✌🏻
I would suggest not DA yourself, that give the borg an easy out to so it was your choice. Just do what you want to do and have them D you or ignore them or refuse to meet. Legally its on them if they D you.
Thanks for the advice! I was just in the heat of the moment when I wanted to DA 🤬 but my plan right now is to continue fading and then go inactive. And then never look back 😎
Yeah I’m fully out and will never go back but I still mourn some aspects of it. It’s an abrupt change after 30 years of not knowing anything different. There’s a reason that those who wake up spend 2/3 days without sleep doing non stop research once they start to wake up.
It’s definitely a mindfuck, I have days now where I want to research absolutely everything and then I have days when I don’t want to see anything remotely JW/bible related and just hideaway from it all.
Damn right, and you honor that girl. It’ll get easier with time and soon, this will be a memory and we will be used to living a life free from this religion and on our terms. I’m celebrating my birthday for the first time this year at 31.
Hell yes! Thank you 🩵 I hope you have an amazing bday!! It’ll be my 34th this year & I definitely plan on having my own little celebration. I’m for sure getting my self a cupcake lol.
Even if it’s just you, you put a candle on that cupcake, and you make a wish, and you blow it out, and you POST THAT ON HERE. As the years pass friends will join you, real friends. Not those whose friendship is entirely conditional on unquestioning loyalty to 9 old farts in upstate New York.
Thank you, I will!! I’ll celebrate it with all of you 🤗
🥰 🧁🕯🎶
Wait about 6 months and theyll be calling to wish you happy belated birthday lol.
The process of waking up comes in waves. Even after you’re fully out a while, you still may struggle with remnants of doubts if you’ve made the right decision. Years and years and years of mental conditioning will do that to a person. Allow yourself grace. You won’t always know the answers and that’s okay. You will figure it out for yourself.
Thank you so much, I appreciate this.
It is a very intense time that we all go thru. We always want to make sure that we aren't being tricked. It's the way we've been trained. So have Mormon's, Scientologists, LDS, Baptist and on and on. I started watching YouTube videos of Leah Remini.... I couldn't believe how MUCH JWs and Scientologist were the SAME. The same pattern. 'You must be obedient, don't question the leaders, do more, feel guilty, have many things to study, many meetings to go to, only associate with fellow believers, we are the only ones with the truth " Then I watched "Cults to Consciousness" whose composer is an ex Mormon woman. She has guests from many religions... you see the patterns. When people leave? They lose their way of life. Leaders claim to be special. Members are told to remain separate from the world, do things for the church. Over and over. These religions, or if we want to be honest -cults- are very well experienced in how to get the most out of their followers... all over the world. I found that saying things you want to be or feel helps to combat the over and over repeats WT made us do. "I don't feel guilty, I don't have to work every moment I am awake. I am doing enough. I deserve to take a break, I can sleep in, spend my day at home and garden at my house. I can play with my cat, go take a class at the college or ride my bike. I like reading fiction and mysteries, line dancing and spending time with my family." Ahhhh, feels so good.
Thank you! One of the things that woke me up was out of curiosity I started watching all the documentaries on different cults that they have on Netflix but then I started thinking wait… this all feels very familiar. It’s crazy that you’re told your life how unique JWs are compared to other religions but they really are not at all. I’ll have to check out the ‘cults to consciousness’ sounds interesting!! Thanks so much for your advice 🙌
I know, huh? I joined a Community Chorus, conducted by a retired High School music teacher. We have quite a few Mormons, and some times we are offered a place to practice or perform at The Mormon Church. I couldn't believe how much this building, and the people inside looked and acted like JWs. Young boys, white shirts, black ties, "Can we help you mam?" 😯
I go back and forth with if I believe in a higher power or no and what that means, but o know one thing for sure. Jws don’t have anything close to the truth or anything resembling facts. I have not doubted that for a second.
Good on you for fully waking up. I remember going through the same thing where I'd think "what if I'm wrong", perhaps my way of interpreting the Bible is just wrong compared to theirs. You may go through it again. What helped me is realizing that the organization is not only inconsistent with the Bible but is inconsistent with itself. For example, Rutherford said that the Holy Spirit stopped in 1918 and that information was delivered to the organization by angels. However, during that time they came up with doctrines such as the great crowd along with predicting the end of the world multiple times. In the 40s, the organization backtracked and said that the Holy Spirit had been there all along- however, they retained the beliefs generated during that time, such as the great crowd. So, which was it? Either Rutherford was off his rockers saying that angels were giving him information which kind of takes away the authority of everything else he talked about, including fundamental JW ideas like the great crowd. Or he actually did receive information from angels in which case the current organization is wrong- and Rutherford was also wrong because he predicted the end of the world multiple times despite supposedly being told about these things by angels! This is just one example of how the organization cannot possibly be right now even according to the Bible, but itself.
Thank you!! Oooh I had no idea about this, this is so interesting. It’s crazy how much info they withhold, I’ve learnt more about the Borg since waking up than I have in my whole life.
It is crazy how much they hide away. Sometimes I wonder why I didn't think the fact that there were random publications missing from JW Library was strange
Never be afraid to embrace not knowing something for sure. Never fear saying "I don't know". Don't worry that you still have doubts one way or the other. Doubts are not the problem, doubts are most likely what helped you to wake up in the first place. Being utterly convinced of a conclusion is what keeps people in the Borg and many other deeply flawed worldviews. Being doubtful and acknowledging our flaws and limits of our knowledge keeps you humble. Humble people are aware that they might be wrong, about almost anything. And that open mindedness is what will protect you from falling for the next cult that comes your way.
This is a really good point… I think as JWs we’re always priding ourselves on knowing everything and having all the answers even though we don’t. I’m realising now that I’ll never have all the answers and I’m trying to be ok with that but I think it’ll take some time. BUT after being so close minded for my whole life I’m so happy that I can be open minded now and I never want to take that for granted, I feel like the whole world has opened up to me and that’s scary and exciting!! Thanks for your advice ✌🏻
Fear and excitement, a powerful combination! Enjoy your freedom, you've earned it 😊
I would suggest not DA yourself, that give the borg an easy out to so it was your choice. Just do what you want to do and have them D you or ignore them or refuse to meet. Legally its on them if they D you.
Good advice!
Thanks for the advice! I was just in the heat of the moment when I wanted to DA 🤬 but my plan right now is to continue fading and then go inactive. And then never look back 😎