Expert: Andrew - 9/4/2007

Question
QUESTION: Hi Andrew,

I started studing with Jehovah Witness' last year in late October.  It was about 7 1/2 months w/ them.  
I really, really loved all of it, studying the bible (I used my KJV) their literature.  Going to Tuesday night book study, Thursday night and Sunday and a bible study.  I was really learning so much.  After a while, I don't know, I guess I kept hearing the same dates alot and earthly hope.  
Well, I started getting lots of questions and doubts, I even talked to an elder about it all.  Even after a special meeting w/ him and my teacher...I still had doubts and lots more questions.  I ended up looking to the internet.  I found so much information which confused me even more.  
I don't do anything w/ them.  My husband won't let me anymore because I told him everything I was finding out.  Maybe it was good or not.  I'm still confused.  I'm Catholic but I don't practice it and I really don't like the religion that much.
I do miss all the friends I've met; I miss the Tuesday nights most.  That's where I was really learning so much; because we are/was learning "The Revelation".  It's so interesting to know.  I do the Revelation book on my own though.  I guess I don't want to let go of it.
So, even though I've read this and that; I still want to go back.

If you can comment, I will appreciate it very much,
Thank you for your time,
Teresa

ANSWER: Dear Teresa,

Your spiritual path is very personal. No one can decide it for you, even your husband. Although he may make it difficult for you to attend Witness meetings, and I see grave danger for you participating with them without first understanding the pitfalls; no one can decide your spiritual path for you but you yourself.

Although I studied with the Witnesses for decades, and know everything they know, and later found a spiritual path which I find more substantial and true, I still can't presume to speak for God or tell you the truth about God. No one can.

If you can "prove" your beliefs about God, it is not faith. It is dogma. Spiritual dogma is always misguided because God does not reveal himself to human beings through our intellect. We have to suspend intellect in order to glimpse God. This is not the same as gullibility. This is not the same as doubt. Faith is more like using the correct part of the brain, the artistic part, the part where dreams occur.

I think friends are good and learning is good and expanding your connection to God is good; but the concerns you raised with your questions and doubts, and the concern your husband and I feel are that if you pursue your experience with the Witnesses it might take you off in another direction (other than friends and education and connection to God). Still ultimately you have to decide for yourself.

I understand your hesitation to let go. How can you possibly let go while your questions persist? You need resolution.

So I suggest you focus on YOUR OWN QUESTIONS, and get them satisfied to YOUR OWN SATISFACTION, trusting your gut, trusting the divine spark within you, or the whispers of God for guidance, not any human being.

Why did it concern you when you heard "the same dates alot and earthly hope"? What caused you to feel concern and doubt and confusion?

You have more choices available to you than just Catholic vs. Jehovah's Witness. So eliminating one doesn't mean you have to embrace the other. I trust that people who want to will do the will of God will find a way to do so when they tune into the whispers of God. I trust that people will choose the path that is consistent with their values when they are free of deception and mind games. I trust that people will choose noble values when they are free to discover their own human nature.

And I have spent a lifetime sorting through mountains of deception and mind games that are used by Witnesses and other well-meaning and not-so-well-meaning groups to circumvent free will and control people. Noble and beautiful things can be derailed by deception. Deception is wrong.

I see a danger among the Witnesses, the danger that you will be influenced against your core values through deception and mind games; and that this would result in believing and acting and speaking in ways that most people would not have chosen if it were presented to you honestly and straightforwardly; and that this can result in your abandoning your family; abandoning your heart; and even abandoning God.

If their message were truly from the God of Truth as the Witnesses say, then there would be absolutely no deception or mind games. But their teachings are nothing but mind games, and I have found unexpected deceptions only after freeing myself from those mind games. So Witness teaching is certainly not what it claims to be; and most Witnesses are just not aware of it. They cannot see the mind games because they are caught in them; just as a lab rat in a maze cannot see the maze from above because they are caught in it.

If you decide to expose yourself to the danger and resume your study with the Witnesses, all I ask is that you first learn how cult mind control works, so that you will be better prepared to recognize it when you see it and make a conscious choice. Trust yourself, and you will find your way. Don't trust people who say, "I speak for God", because that is a lie.

If I can help further by answering questions, I will be happy to do so. I will not knowingly lie to you. I can tell you both sides of the story, because I have been on both sides of this fence. But you must trust only the divine within you; only your heart; because that is the only source that cannot be contaminated with lies by people with agendas. Please call on me if I can help further.

Your experience helps others. So please make your questions public when possible. Thank you.

Best wishes,
AndrewXJW

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi Andrew,

Wow, thank you so much of your personal information; because I really need to hear it.  I do feel like I'm on the top of the fence and don't know which side to be on.

You asked:
"Why did it concern you when you heard "the same dates alot and earthly hope"? What caused you to feel concern and doubt and confusion?"
I keep hearing about 1914, 607, World War ll.  I've looked up those dates on the internet...only Jehovah Witness' know about those dates.
I've can't find out to much about earthly hope on the internet at all.  It's just confusing to hear from JW's and because I've never heard of it in the Catholic religion.  I haven't heard of 1914 or anything else either.
My doubts, questions and confusion was because I was at the meetings and hearing those dates, then researching them and finding out about them.  Then thinking, maybe they are right and know one else knows about them.

Back to the meeting w/ the elder, so I'm telling him that I've always prayed and believed in God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.  And that I know he's answered lots of my prayers. The one that I mentioned to him was, on deciding on buying a condo or not.  I told him I prayed day and night, (because that's a big decision for us to make) and only if it was in God's will, and if not then we will be fine renting.  But the elder said, "It could have been a coincidence".  I said, "It could have been."  
Inside I was pretty upset he could have even thought that or why.

I would really like to hear what you have to say about both sides. I read there's lots of divorces also and it can be danger for the family if one is a JW and the other isn't.

Thank you so much for your time,
Teresa


Answer
Dear Teresa,

> I keep hearing about 1914, 607, World War ll.  I've looked
> up those dates on the internet...only Jehovah Witness'
> know about those dates.

To me, "knowledge" means "the possession of accurate information". Do Witnesses know or speculate about the meaning of 607 and 1914? The answer to this question may shed light on why they have it and others don't. Also, cult researchers suggest that the possession of insider "knowledge" that no one else in the world possesses is a compelling influence. It's like offering you a golden key, and suggesting that the key opens an important door. You know no one else has the key, and you wonder what's behind the door. By the time you find out, you're hooked and you can't get out again without losing your whole world.

> I've can't find out to much about earthly hope on the
> internet at all.  It's just confusing to hear from JW's
> and because I've never heard of it in the Catholic
> religion.  

The belief in a hope of a better life on a "cleansed" earth requires a cleansing event. To the Witness mind, that cleansing event is Armageddon. They believe that God himself will bring a war or storm against his own creation and wipe out most of the human race, cleansing the earth of supposed iniquity, leaving only the innocent to inherit a cleansed earth.

As I understand it, Catholicism and most other religions do not teach any earthly hope, but rather offer the hope of heavenly bliss after death for those who please God in this life. There are a few religions who teach similarly to the Witnesses. Another name for their system of teachings on this matter is "eschatology" or "eschatological" or "second coming" or "end days". You may find more information on the Internet using these search terms.

According to my reading of cult research, the kind of eschatology the Witnesses practice reinforces several mind control tactics, for example, "demand for purity", "sacred science", and "dispensing of existence".

I see some of the same trends they do. In some ways it DOES look like the world may end. And based on historical fact, it's not unreasonable to say that the world HAS ENDED many times in the past. But what I know for sure is that the God of Truth will not save deceivers and kill me when I have embraced truth and listened directly to God himself more than they have. Even if the world does end, that doesn't mean Witnesses are my only salvation. God is my rock.

> I haven't heard of 1914 or anything else either.

1914 is a historical year. It was the year World War I began. The Witnesses have made a huge number of predictions about the end of the world, and none of them have been quite right. 1914 is a special year to the Witnesses because it's the only prediction they got even half right. They predicted the end of the world would come in 1914, as far back as the 1870's. They are very proud of the fact that World War I started that year, seemingly confirming their prediction. Of course it was not the end of the world, but they stretch the truth and say it was the "beginning of the end". So this is what I mean by "half right". Many other predictions they made were all wrong. I guess when you make so many predictions, the law of averages suggests you will get some of them right at least partly.

> My doubts, questions and confusion was because I was at
> the meetings and hearing those dates, then researching
> them and finding out about them.  Then thinking, maybe
> they are right and know one else knows about them.

I suggest you do some reading on cult mind control. The oldest research is among the best. Robert J. Lifton defined "Eight marks" of a mind control cult. You can see a simplified summary of his work at
http://www.freeminds.org/psych/lifton.htm
Try to digest how the mechanism works, specifically under the subtitles "demand for purity", "sacred science", and "dispensing of existence", and see how these mind control tactics might be used in a context where Witnesses teach an  eschatological worldview that seems to override other worldviews in terms of dramatic importance and makes everything a member might do a serious matter because it impacts on his or her ability to survive the supposedly imminent end of the world. (The end of the world has been "imminent", just around the corner, among Witnesses for 130 years now.)

Mind control cults usually mean well. They actually believe that their controlling tactics are helping people to stay on the straight and narrow for their own good. The control is definite and obvious to all. What's not so obvious is whether they're RIGHT. If they're right, then perhaps the control is justifiable. But if they're wrong then the control is abusive and arbitrary. There are Witnesses who will say you SHOULD submit to this control because it comes from God; and there are non-Witnesses who say you SHOULD NOT submit to this control because it comes from people.

How does God bear witness to your soul when you pray about this matter? Does God want you to submit to controlling people who claim to speak for him? If the answer comes from any person, it's not from God. My experience is that God is speaking when I have my brightest glimpses, my highest intentions, my deepest insights, my truest feelings. Do you feel these things are occurring when someone suggests the Witnesses are speaking for God about Armageddon and therefore you should submit to their control?

Or have they painted a scary picture and destabilized your worldview with a complex web of ideas because they want to control you to save you because they deeply believe they are God's own spokesman?

The key fact that broke the camel's back when I was escaping from their control was simply this: They constantly imply that the Witness organization is God's own spokesman, and therefore I assumed there was some form of special communication between God and the leadership in the highest levels of the Witness hierarchy. But ultimately I found out there is NO SUCH COMMUNICATION.

Without direct appointment, there is no spokesmanship. Therefore the Witnesses' dogma is speculation about what God wants, just like every other religion that claims to know what God wants.

> Back to the meeting w/ the elder, so I'm telling him that
> I've always prayed and believed in God, Jesus and the Holy
> Spirit.  And that I know he's answered lots of my prayers.
> The one that I mentioned to him was, on deciding on buying
> a condo or not.  I told him I prayed day and night,
> (because that's a big decision for us to make) and only if
> it was in God's will, and if not then we will be fine
> renting.  But the elder said, "It could have been a
> coincidence".  I said, "It could have been."  
> Inside I was pretty upset he could have even thought that
> or why. I would really like to hear what you have to say
> about both sides.

This is a very telling sequence of events. Who besides you could possibly know whether God bore witness to your soul in answer to a prayer? Who besides you could presume to interpret whether God whispered to you in your dream in answer to a prayer but you yourself? No one!

Yet the Witness elder knows the organization cannot control or lead a person who has a direct connection to God. This is why the Witnesses teach that their organization is the only channel of direction from God, so they can control the members. Yet it is not a channel because THEY RECEIVE NO COMMUNICATION FROM GOD WHATSOEVER AND NEVER HAVE. They even admit this at times, yet heavily imply the opposite at other times. This is how cult mind control can make you actually abandon God to follow an organization.

God does not speak to corporations. The Watchtower Society is a corporation. God speaks to souls. Corporations don't have souls.

Even more ominously, notice how the elder used moral authority to pressure you to say something you did not believe. After he insulted your connection with God, you agreed with him that it could have been a coincidence--when you did not believe that at all.

This is called "cognitive dissonance". This tactic was elaborated by cult researcher Leon Festinger. If they can pressure you to say something you don't believe, you eventually begin to believe it because your mind hears you saying it. Why do you think Witnesses go preaching door to door and answer questions by rote directly from paragraphs the organization wrote? It is a means of making people believe by FIRST making them speak the words.

If you continue being pressured by elders through moral authority to say things you don't believe, you will eventually begin to believe. Thus children raised as Witnesses, pressured in many ways from the moment they begin to speak, have no hope of ever being free from mind control among Witnesses.

> I read there's lots of divorces also and it can be danger
> for the family if one is a JW and the other isn't.

It depends. If both spouses are Witnesses, divorce is less common among Witnesses than in the mainstream. They put a strong emphasis on traditional values. Nobody is all wrong. They mix good things in with bad. If everything was bad, nobody would join them. One of the things I respect about the Witnesses is their support of noble values like keeping the sacred marriage vow.

However, families are often divided, including husband and wife, parent and child, siblings and so on; where one is a Witness and the other is not. So it is not a true representation of stable traditional family values. Witnesses are taught to easily disown one another, turn one another in for the slightest infractions, stop speaking to one another without ever knowing why or hearing the other side of the story, just because the elders said so. Children are put out on the street for "offenses" other religions would consider trivialities.

Ultimately it is not about family integrity among Witnesses as it is among Catholics. The real agenda among Witnesses is controllability. Although there are a thousand excuses, the real ultimate reason why expulsion and shunning occurs among Witnesses in always the same: The member couldn't be controlled so he threatened their power base. All sorts of foolish sophistic justifications are used to make it seem noble and right, when really it's just about maintaining power.

I hope you will be able to see the tricks so as not to be tricked, and hear God in your heart so as not to be pressured by men to stop hearing Him, and get solid answers to your question rather than pressured to trust that someone else knows the answer and that's "good enough".

It's not good enough. Nobody can speak for God, especially those who deceive and even admit they do not receive directions from God.

Best wishes,
AndrewXJW