Comments on: RAW Week: Cosmic Trigger helped me get out of Jehovah's Witnesses, by Angus Stocking

By: Angus Stocking

Angus Stocking — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 22:17:00 +0000

Yeah, I got better at speaking, and also sales – going door to door is brutal, effective training.

By: xjwrob

xjwrob — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 04:05:00 +0000

Word! It is nice seeing others who have left the “fold” ROFL! I left the “truth” several years ago. My family is still very active. They don’t bother me much these days. If they do, I tell them to fuck off and mind their own biz.

My wife (who was never a witness) can’t believe I used to pioneer and go door to door. I will say that the ministry school did help me with public speaking and did cultivate a my wonderful outgoing personality (LOL).

By: Angus Stocking

Angus Stocking — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 19:10:00 +0000

Eh, smart people are good at coming up with reasons for believing dumb things. Don’t feel bad, just move on.

By: Robert

Robert — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:50:00 +0000

Ah yes, the “clingy reluctance”. Know it all too well. During my exit I think I qualified as being temporarily insane.

But there is one thing I still give JWs credit for. Where else could you go on a Tuesday night, anywhere in the country, and find a bunch of people reading poorly illustrated books line by line, discussing how the corporation that published the book was selected by a divine spirit 100 years ago to leads gods people into the promised new world.

I mean, i feel stupid for believing it at one point, but at the same time, I still am impressed that people continue to show up and engage in that stuff…..

By: Angus Stocking

Angus Stocking — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 17:23:00 +0000

There were some shrooms in the mix, possibly laced.

By: SomeGuyNamedMark

SomeGuyNamedMark — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 17:11:00 +0000

Sounds like you got more than just LSD. Maybe PCP.

By: Borgfree

Borgfree — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:46:00 +0000

Congratulations!

borgfree-ex-dub.

By: Angus Stocking

Angus Stocking — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:56:00 +0000

Yo.

By: Angus Stocking

Angus Stocking — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:52:00 +0000

Agreed – I really dove into rapid brain change, and wouldn’t have gone that direction without Bob’s influence. And I am doing far better than many ex-JWs, as far as I can tell.

By: Angus Stocking

Angus Stocking — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:50:00 +0000

It was pretty bad! Included naked freeway running, 4-point restraint, etc. More details here: http://www.otherbs.com/2011/06/05/miracles-creating-miracles/

Scroll down (or read).

By: Angus Stocking

Angus Stocking — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:48:00 +0000

Thermopyle, I did lose contact eventually, with my daughter, but on the other hand my son eventually left, at 17, and was glad to have a place to turn to. He moved in with me and got on with life, and that would have been a lot harder without me having gone through the pain of quitting.

By: Angus Stocking

Angus Stocking — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:46:00 +0000

It’s actually horse shit, gathered that morning. Dry ice was used to create the vapor.

By: Angus Stocking

Angus Stocking — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:42:00 +0000

You can also just ask them to put you on their ‘do not call list.’ They have one, and it will give you some relief. I wish more people knew about the list, and would ask to be on it. JWs already have a problem with over-saturation in some areas, and this would further raise the JW-to-knockable-door ratio.

By: Angus Stocking

Angus Stocking — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:40:00 +0000

Thanks all – great to hear from all the ex-JWs. When I quit I ended up changing religions, wives, careers, and states in about a ten-month time period. Stressful, exhilarating. I got lucky in Paonia, Colorado, and was asked to do a radio show. So, I got to have my therapy in public, as it were, and have continued with the blog.

By: Thermopyle

Thermopyle — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:50:00 +0000

Oh, I don’t have any issues with my BS meter. I’m completely aware of what’s going on here.
(Which isn’t to say I’m happy with the state of affairs, but unlike Angus Stocking, I’m not at the point where I’m willing to abandon contact with my child.)

In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if I had a better BS meter than RAW did because I understand modern cognitive science and Bayesian reasoning and have access to the internet. None of which RAW had access to.

By: Patrick Henry

Patrick Henry — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 13:54:00 +0000

JW modus operandi. Jehovah’s Witnesses are schooled in ‘finding common ground’,if you like pink elephants they will become experts on pink elephants. That’s the beauty of religion and superstition, it has no limits.Religion is the most profitable legal business because religions can misquote, misrepresent, and use unethical practices without fear of punishment. It’s the absolute best way to scam people I have yet seen

By: Marcos Lopez-Carlson

Marcos Lopez-Carlson — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 13:29:00 +0000

This is great, I also discovered the Illuminatus Trilogy as I was in the process of leaving the Jehovah’s Witnesses. It was mind blowing, irreverent and provoking. Basically the perfect catalyst for making one embrace change.

By: Daniel Haszard

Daniel Haszard — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:40:00 +0000

There is clearly a lot of ridicule spinning around the Jehovah’s Witnesses, which is of course exactly what they expect it’s been prophesied. Convenient that a systematized culture of insularity, sexual discrimination, legal manipulation, child abuse and isolation, and brainwashing tends to bring that up in people.Presto!–self-fulfilling prophecy, made to order.
–Danny Haszard *apostate with an attitude*

By: ezriadventuregirl

ezriadventuregirl — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:53:00 +0000

ex JW boingers, REPRESENT.

By: sean

sean — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:23:00 +0000

That must have been a REAL bad trip at that Dead show, if it turned you into a Jehovah’s Witness. If the government had said that something like THAT would happen if I took LSD, instead of stuff like chromosome damage, schizophrenia, insanity, suicide and shit that didn’t bother me, I never would have touched the stuff.

By: Frank W

Frank W — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 08:08:00 +0000

You should read some (more) Robert Anton Wilson books. I think of them as instruments for calibrating my BS detector.

By: Frank W

Frank W — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 08:01:00 +0000

…BS.

By: James Ledley

James Ledley — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 05:24:00 +0000

“for family’s sake.”

That’s how it goes, doesn’t it? I look back at my own religious years as a socially-motivated crime of convenience.

By: Thermopyle

Thermopyle — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 04:03:00 +0000

I am a JW (in name only, for family’s sake. I don’t go “door to door”. I’m really an atheist). The don’t have a quota system per se. At least not in a manner that would prevent them talking to you or leaving you publications. In fact, the only thing that “matters” is # of hours in the ministry.

They just leave you alone because there’s no reason to talk to you more if you’re already talking to someone.

By: Incipient Madness

Incipient Madness — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 03:52:00 +0000

I easily give JW’s the slip by mentioning that My grandmother is a Witness and that she passes along all the issues of Awake and The Watchtower that she thinks would interest me. I neglect to mention that my grandmother has been dead for a number of years as she was almost 40 when she had my dad and my dad was 29 when I was born.

So they look at me in my early forties and think I might have a living grandmother and leave me alone. JW’s have a quota system and they don’t want to cut into my grandmother’s quota. They leave me alone.

Works the same with the Hare Krishnas. I tell them I got my copy of The Higher Taste at a Krishna feast a few years ago and that some of the recipes are quite awesome. They leave me alone.

By: Sarah Mann

Sarah Mann — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 03:21:00 +0000

It’s always great to hear the story of another ex-JW! And what an amazing story…

By: pjcamp

pjcamp — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 01:48:00 +0000

Deadhead, Witness, surveyor, . . . elephant dung mover? That’s a mighty pile of something in that shovel.