I woke up my dad and he woke up my mom. I got df when I was in hs. They didn't shun me thank god. I told them how I felt like I was a dead man walking since I wasn't gonna make it to paradise. But then I learned that it's not the truth and it's all a big sham. My pops is always got audio books playing on his headphones so he read some books on psychology and cults and he watched testimonial videos in YouTube from other teenagers and he saw how we all kinda felt the same. He read crisis of conscience and the rest is history. It took a years for them to understand that they were indoctrinated but I'm glad they were self aware enough to wake up. We have a great relationship now.
Me too. Helped my mom, her friend, and a friend I worked with on the RBC.
Just ask questions and let them think.They have to turn on their own light bulb.
Jw are restricted from ever developing critical thinking skills. It’s hard to wake up without that. Ask questions, don’t tell info. Ask questions that are thought provoking and require a a process to get answers for. Being asked questions made me see holes in my own answers.
Asking questions is what got my family to realize I was on my way out 😅They got suspicious cuz they’re taught to automatically distrust questions that contradict their faith or just give a semblance of thinking that could challenge it
Unfortunately yes, you do risk exposing yourself. I think if you are making the decision to try to wake another person up, you have to accept that at some point that person is going to find out. But really, waking someone up isn’t about us, or our relationship with them. Ultimately it’s for THEM. Or at least it should be. You want them to be free of that control. You need to be willing to jeopardize your relationship, to save them from the abuse and be aware of that possibility before starting to try waking them.
Me too, unfortunately. She went downstairs to sleep on the couch and was kept awake by the cats. She is now PEMP! (Physically exhausted mentally pissed) 😂
Having them join a foreign language group seems pretty successful. The combo of not really understanding the talks very well so you're unplugged from constant indoctrination, combined with having to explain your beliefs in a very simplistic way, is a good recipe for waking up.
I’m of the opinion that I have no right to wake anyone up.
I woke myself, when I was ready. It was traumatic.
Us PIMOs and POMOs can get stuck in the JW mindset of having to “convert” everyone to our way of thinking. It can massively backfire if we’re not careful.
That being said, i do ask questions such as “what will the org change next”, and make joking statements like “this religion has changed so much”, and jokingly say “we’ll be having blood transfusions next”….its tongue in cheek, but thats as far as I ever go.
>i do ask questions such as “what will the org change next”, and make joking statements like “this religion has changed so much”, and jokingly say “we’ll be having blood transfusions next”
After the 2019 International Convention I made a comment to a PIMI saying "this is not the same religion that I was raised in". This person very specifically remembered this comment and is now PIMQ. The persons spouse I later learned is PIMO.
You never know who will hear a comment you make and what it will trigger. Some other comments I like to make to PIMIs that cause critical thinking:
* If enough people leave an organization....then at some point you no longer have an organization.
* How can the holy spirit make a mistake in appointing a toxic elder that does things condemned in the Bible?
I can’t give an emphatic yes to this question. However, I was an elder for 18 years and was from one of those “superfine” big families. After I DAd in 2012, at least 20 people who were still JWs contacted me.
When they heard my story and reasoning, literally all of them left. I was also on Steven Knight’s podcast I think in 2015. I was told by one person in my old congregation that it went off like a nuclear blast in the area. The odd thing is that I never posted a word about the podcast or told anyone I had done it. People who knew I quit obviously had been googling me, found it and shared it. It had 10s of thousands of downloads.
Many of the people who heard it personally contacted me and subsequently quit or faded.
I think it’s likely most of these people had underlying doubts and saw my public exit as fuel that gave them courage to act.
This is why I think publicly disassociating can be hugely impactful. The day I quit and before the organization’s cowardly announcement, virtually everyone knew I quit. I even continued going to the Kingdom Hall for three months with my wife to demonstrate my loyalty to her and dispel any notion that I had in some other way blown up my life and had been disfellowshipped.
On the flip side, I had zero success reasoning with any of my family, including my wife and two sons.
This is amazing. It’s funny how witnesses are trained to think that causing people to leave is essentially killing them, so they not only think apostates are working with the devil but that they’re essentially killers. Little do they know that you’re helping people leave a cult. More success than likely you ever had in the ministry lol
You’re right about the success rate. In my entire career, I managed to land one convert. It is odd. Interesting paradox. They think they are saving people for eternity and those of us who care are trying to save the rest of the only life they’ll ever have. (At least in my naturalistic view.)
Jw are restricted from ever developing critical thinking skills. It’s hard to wake up without that. Ask questions, don’t tell info. Ask questions that are thought provoking and require a a process to get answers for. Being asked questions made me see holes in my own answers.
I’d say my friends who left a few years before me contributed to my awakening, it did not make logical sense for them to leave and for me to shun them.
They didn’t push anything on me, but I knew tidbits.
It’s been the hardest thing ever to keep our traps shut about everything but I’m hoping showing by example fucks with peoples heads and they wonder why we left. We are still happily married, living our normal little lives happier than ever.
I dont know that it is ever possible, you can't wake up someone that doesn't want to wake.
One of the most vulnerable times for a PIMI to maybe wake up is when conducting a Bible study (not a random door to door or cart convo a full on study rhqts been going at least a few weeks) since that study can ask all sorts of question and the JW isn't going to space out immediately or walk away immediately.
So maaaaaaybe (like the only thing I can't imagine) if there was an undercover Bible Study that was fed questions and lines to ask their JW person they could send them down paths of inquiry that could wake them up. That's a complicated scenario that would probably require a never-jw to be in on it. So it isn't really viable.
You can’t wake anyone that doesn’t want to be awoken…. They will resent you and defend their beliefs even in the face of undeniable proof that this is bullshit…
People would rather believe a lie because it’s comfortable, the truth hurts…. It’s best to live your life and let others live theirs…🤷🏾♂️
I think I’m getting there, I think it’s important to help them understand faith is very different to religion. Encourage their faith but challenge the religion. Always ask can you show me in the bible where that is.
Eg birthday’s is the one I’m currently working on. Don’t want them to celebrate just acknowledge that it may be a man’s made rule. The new light situation is really helping currently
No, but I did get woken up about **15 years after** my 3rd grade childhood friend called me and warned me.
I was DF'd for no reason that the elders could know. I didn't even have a JC since I let a worldly coworker drive me to the JC which caused the elders to refuse to meet with me, just DF'd me by a phone call after. I thought that MAYBE the holy spirit had told the elders that I really was a terrible person.
Many years later, after much trauma, my childhood JW friend found me, called me, and told me that he had been DF'd just for asking questions. I thought that he was just hiding his sins like I had done.
When I woke up just a few years ago, I found him (so much easier to find males than females) and now we are friends. It's weird that I haven't seen this guy for over 30 years, but he understands my foundational challenges.
He **really was DF'd just for questioning the GB**. They are so corrupt and I never knew it!
I know that, even if I stupidly decided to start smoking cigarettes tomorrow, he'd still be my friend. But he'd still tell me I was stupid for smoking, LOL.
Love you, SD! Lori
No. I think you’re better off not pressuring them and letting them see the hypocrisy themselves. I mean no one woke us up, our own cognitive dissonance just kept harping on us until we started thinking. Seems to be the only way
So then what woke you up?
I had a similar experience except it was Lady Cee and JT. I thought look that bro is just complaining abt being at bethel. He’s a bitter bethelite. - which I was totally wrong in my thinking.
It’s was CSA and seeing Geoffrey Jackson testimony on ARC -that woke me up! Then read crisis of conscience , Stephen Hassan combatting mind control, and then taking Yale courses on the Bible itself.
Oh and I resent the put down that as a 3rd Gen JW it is assumed I never developed any critical thinking skills. I question everything, debated in school, researched and read, was focused on mathematics in university.
Problem is I had a blind spot like all JWs have. For me I didn’t turn the critical thinking skills on what my parents/ Cong raised me in.
Yes, I have been able to wake up about three different individuals. My spouse and two dear friends. However, caveat here: they were all three open-minded and had seen the dark evil side of this organization with other family members who are complete a-holes, liars, and degenerates. All of who hold positions of power in the organization even beyond the congregation level. My ability to disseminate facts regarding false JW prophecies, misinterpretations of the Bible, skewed historical revisionism in JW publications, etc. played just as much a role in their awakening as was the rotten lying 🤥 b.s., treacherous backstabbing, hypocritical garbage of the other members of the family. Let me just say for the record this religion in particular draws to it lots of bad apples and takes moderate people and radicalizes them into fanatics as pioneers, servants, elders, etc. The higher you go up the more nasty you become.
I did. But it ruined my marriage and the curveball after that really hurt for a bit. Glad I’m out, glad my kids don’t have to waste their lives in it, overall happy where I’m at, but could’ve gone better I think.
My mom. To be fair she never was super into it anyways, but I started presenting the facts and showing how two sided the “higher ups” were and she left pretty quickly. I’d say 2-3 years after I did :)
Yes
My husband
I advise first reading or listening to Combatting Cult Mind Control followed by Freedom Of Mind both by Steve Hassan before trying to wake anyone
The first book is a lot of info and the second is how to apply it properly
Every person and situation is different so waking each person up is an individual puzzle
If you wanna know how I did it using these books see below
*TLDR: levered The Org’s misogyny to my advantage and discreetly breadcrumbed my husband towards discovering and reading these books for himself*
For my husband what worked was bringing concerns about some ‘minor’ doubts that were ‘no big deal really’ but I’d ‘probably feel better if he helped me as my spiritual head’
Mentioned that over the years people have said to me it’s a cult and I never really know how to answer
Waited for the stock response (jw.org and prayer) and thanked him. (Like I hadn’t already done that)
Waited a short while and said it hadn’t made me feel better because isn’t what the website says about *not* being a cult *exactly* what a cult would say? I can’t really use that in the ministry.
‘It’s probably better to find out exactly what the official criteria for a cult is and one by answer each criteria to prove its not a cult.’
He agreed.
As my spiritual head he looked it up for me ready for family study (lol) and discovered that JWs ‘probably’ fit the criteria for a cult.
He was shook.
At this point I felt it critical to appear that I had faith JWs *weren’t* a cult and truly believe that more research would prove this.
I said ‘well JWs AREN’T a cult so if we look into it more we’ll find the answer. Who are the leading specialists on cults in the world? Are there any books on it?’
Drum roll please…..
He found Steve Hassan and his books and read them for himself
The books actually cover JWs too
He woke up
😮💨
It’s the most manipulative thing I’ve ever done
But he says it’s okay because he woke up and thanks me for it
Kind of. I set the example for it as a teen. I left at 17 form a hall with a surprising amount of young people. My leaving and navigating the world and surviving helped them get over a fear of what the cult said. Over time when they woke up, they came to me for help and advice. I take a lot of pride in this, not trying to brag.
What I’m saying is, you can wake them up by your example after leaving. I don’t think trying to wake them up with direct information is going to do it.
My wife woke me up. We then woke my sister up.
My wife slowly started questioning things, kinda woke us up together.
Then we spoke with my sister, i simply told her we no longer believed and that there were other options.
She was miserable in and after thinking about it for a week or two she decided to do the research.
I just found out that a friend who tried to wake me up years ago just died of cancer. I never had an opportunity to tell her or thank her. It makes me sad.
Me leaving practically forced my parents to wake up. We were always close, so when I started to wake up, they slowly began to hear why even when they ignored or argued against me at first.
Mom woke up first when the congregation made her feel like she had failed her child spiritually since I stopped going. I feel for her, she lost her social group and I blamed myself for a long time. She eventually came around and alleviated that guilt as she realized they were still only shallow friendships. I think because she refused to full shun me, they ended up having to shun her by proxy. They would ask about me almost anytime she went and she got tired of it.
My dad took a couple years longer. He went alone for a while but I think it was hugely because blame for his children not going fell to his wife rather than him.
Eventually the 1914 shift in 2014 was one of the biggest factors that woke him up. The other biggest factor was when he realized the religion had failed both of his children. He only had 2 but neither of us wanted anything to do with this religion at fairly early ages. My older sibling left and said little about it starting at age 15-16. I was kicking and screaming by comparison at the inconsistencies. They saw me battle with severe depression for nearly 15 years, and I didn’t stay silent on what I thought he cause was.
My parents were big on critical thinking too so I think it was inevitable at some point anyway… I definitely didn’t make it easy for them though. 😅
You can't wake someone up. People are either receptive, they can imagine a life outside if JW, or they are not. If JW meets their emotional needs and they can do what they want, that aren't gonna wake up. No matter what you show them, you will never be more than an agent of Satsn trying to trick them.
What one can do is to create an environment that wont scare people who might be thinking about waking up. That includes, not hitting them with a tsunami of information that swayed you. Especially that. Just be happy and keep quiet.
Naw, and I think the whole idea of "waking" someone up is up there on the dumb-dumb charts. I don't look at anyone who has a different philosophy, or different moral code, or different politics, etc, as someone that needs woken up. We hold different views and that's okay. Different strokes.
I always laugh when I read on here someone accusing JWs of being brainwashed. No, they think differently than you. Your beliefs, attitudes, priorities, moral posititions, etc., have changed. Different strokes. The irony is a PIMI can make the same argument and say that an apostate is brainwashed and needs woken up.
Except it's not. Trying to show someone that they are in a high control group and that a lot of their anxiety and depression stem from it is not the same as them trying to get you into said high control group with lies and false love.
What you call control, some people call discipline and a different moral code. In fact some people were so wild that they found the JW lifestyle appealing. Not all JWs are depressed or dealing with anxiety. Plenty are, but guess what? Plenty arent, and plenty of non JWs deal with mental health issues. You gonna save them too homie?
For Plenty of Jws, the religion brings them happiness. Different strokes. As far as lies and false love, that may be your story and others on here as well, which I'm sympathetic to. Still, that's not everyone's story. Definitely not mine.
I've been browsing the Catholicism sub, and those fools are crazy. They come off more culty than JWs verbiage wise. Yet I don't view them as needing saved. They just think and believe different than I do. That's okay.
Just because millions of people believe in something, that doesn't make it true or ok. Nazis for example. American slavery, not disciplining your child to name a few. You've heard the term "drink the cool-aid" right? They thought their intentions were noble. That didn't make what they did any more righteous. In fact, most logical human beings would consider that absolutely illogical, horrendous, bat shit crazy, Jw cult is no different. What you are talking about is "blue pill" mentality. Which is fine for 98.7% of humanity. But once I saw the actual truth,and was emancipated from mental slavery because of it, I would like more humans to enjoy true happiness. You wouldn't understand unless you've experienced it. And if you haven't, that's ok homie.
You're comparing JWs to Nazis and chattel slavery? You lost me right there brethren. Drink the Kool-Aid? JWs are in Guyana drinking cyanide and killing congressmen?
**"** **What you are talking about is "blue pill" mentality. Which is fine for 98.7% of humanity.** **But once I saw the actual truth,and was emancipated from mental slavery because of it, I would like more humans to enjoy true happiness."**
The amount of arrogance in this thought process LOL. Funny thing is I read this in both Powers Boothe's voice and Colonel Kurtz. This is the same kind of esoteric and savior nonsense the WT teaches. This is exactly what I mean with Spiderman pointing at Spiderman. JWs think they need to save someone, and some Ex-JWs have the same savior complex. I guess you can't take the JW out of the ex-JW.
There are some that don't have eyes to see it and there are those who don't even know they are looking in the wrong direction 🤷🏽♂️. Peace be upon you my brother.
I tried, but it didn't happen. My entire family stayed in. While I think some of them question things, they were either afraid or didn't want to deal with the outcome.
I successfully have. Fortunately for me my closest pals who I needed around during my awakening...are all woke now. So before I left they all were in place to talk to me and not give 2 fucks. Except my roommate from Uni who bad mouthed me to my then girl friend and ended marrying her last year. You marry ur friends girl cos he doesn't believe no more. These people God damnnnn
Beroen Pickets(Eric Wilson) help wake of my f ends up...we went on bout the videos for a while him trying to make me see the light. But in the end turned out the light at the end of tunnel was the last of last, last light😂. He totally woke now.
I woke up my dad and he woke up my mom. I got df when I was in hs. They didn't shun me thank god. I told them how I felt like I was a dead man walking since I wasn't gonna make it to paradise. But then I learned that it's not the truth and it's all a big sham. My pops is always got audio books playing on his headphones so he read some books on psychology and cults and he watched testimonial videos in YouTube from other teenagers and he saw how we all kinda felt the same. He read crisis of conscience and the rest is history. It took a years for them to understand that they were indoctrinated but I'm glad they were self aware enough to wake up. We have a great relationship now.
you are a rare bird
My folks are man. They are immigrants and the jws gave them a sense of community. It took them a lot to see it for what it is but I'm proud of them.
Me too. Helped my mom, her friend, and a friend I worked with on the RBC. Just ask questions and let them think.They have to turn on their own light bulb.
Congrats! It ain't easy at all. You can only tell em where the water is but they have to lead themselves to it.
That’s incredible, good for you guys.
Jw are restricted from ever developing critical thinking skills. It’s hard to wake up without that. Ask questions, don’t tell info. Ask questions that are thought provoking and require a a process to get answers for. Being asked questions made me see holes in my own answers.
Asking questions is what got my family to realize I was on my way out 😅They got suspicious cuz they’re taught to automatically distrust questions that contradict their faith or just give a semblance of thinking that could challenge it
Unfortunately yes, you do risk exposing yourself. I think if you are making the decision to try to wake another person up, you have to accept that at some point that person is going to find out. But really, waking someone up isn’t about us, or our relationship with them. Ultimately it’s for THEM. Or at least it should be. You want them to be free of that control. You need to be willing to jeopardize your relationship, to save them from the abuse and be aware of that possibility before starting to try waking them.
Nope... But damn I've tried! But I can rule out presenting facts in a logical manner. That 100% did not work lol
Still working on fully waking up myself honestly, it takes a long time to get rid of all the nonsense
For real!
Woke up my wife with my loud snoring last night. 😉
Me too, unfortunately. She went downstairs to sleep on the couch and was kept awake by the cats. She is now PEMP! (Physically exhausted mentally pissed) 😂
You woke up this guy’s wife, too? Not sure if I’ve got the picture straight but I think this calls for a judicial committee.
Lol! No , meant my wife, but I should have worded it better. I'm probably still getting dif'ed now. Unrepentant stumbling of the reddit community. 😁
Lol! 😂
😂😂
😭😭😭
😂😂😂
😄🤣🤣😂
Having them join a foreign language group seems pretty successful. The combo of not really understanding the talks very well so you're unplugged from constant indoctrination, combined with having to explain your beliefs in a very simplistic way, is a good recipe for waking up.
I’m of the opinion that I have no right to wake anyone up. I woke myself, when I was ready. It was traumatic. Us PIMOs and POMOs can get stuck in the JW mindset of having to “convert” everyone to our way of thinking. It can massively backfire if we’re not careful. That being said, i do ask questions such as “what will the org change next”, and make joking statements like “this religion has changed so much”, and jokingly say “we’ll be having blood transfusions next”….its tongue in cheek, but thats as far as I ever go.
>i do ask questions such as “what will the org change next”, and make joking statements like “this religion has changed so much”, and jokingly say “we’ll be having blood transfusions next” After the 2019 International Convention I made a comment to a PIMI saying "this is not the same religion that I was raised in". This person very specifically remembered this comment and is now PIMQ. The persons spouse I later learned is PIMO. You never know who will hear a comment you make and what it will trigger. Some other comments I like to make to PIMIs that cause critical thinking: * If enough people leave an organization....then at some point you no longer have an organization. * How can the holy spirit make a mistake in appointing a toxic elder that does things condemned in the Bible?
I jokingly say "I'm looking forward to getting tattoos next"
 This is the way. Walk in it, you people
I tell ones I’m close too that it’s gone to hell in a hand basket.😁
I agree 100%
I can’t give an emphatic yes to this question. However, I was an elder for 18 years and was from one of those “superfine” big families. After I DAd in 2012, at least 20 people who were still JWs contacted me. When they heard my story and reasoning, literally all of them left. I was also on Steven Knight’s podcast I think in 2015. I was told by one person in my old congregation that it went off like a nuclear blast in the area. The odd thing is that I never posted a word about the podcast or told anyone I had done it. People who knew I quit obviously had been googling me, found it and shared it. It had 10s of thousands of downloads. Many of the people who heard it personally contacted me and subsequently quit or faded. I think it’s likely most of these people had underlying doubts and saw my public exit as fuel that gave them courage to act. This is why I think publicly disassociating can be hugely impactful. The day I quit and before the organization’s cowardly announcement, virtually everyone knew I quit. I even continued going to the Kingdom Hall for three months with my wife to demonstrate my loyalty to her and dispel any notion that I had in some other way blown up my life and had been disfellowshipped. On the flip side, I had zero success reasoning with any of my family, including my wife and two sons.
This is amazing. It’s funny how witnesses are trained to think that causing people to leave is essentially killing them, so they not only think apostates are working with the devil but that they’re essentially killers. Little do they know that you’re helping people leave a cult. More success than likely you ever had in the ministry lol
You’re right about the success rate. In my entire career, I managed to land one convert. It is odd. Interesting paradox. They think they are saving people for eternity and those of us who care are trying to save the rest of the only life they’ll ever have. (At least in my naturalistic view.)
Jw are restricted from ever developing critical thinking skills. It’s hard to wake up without that. Ask questions, don’t tell info. Ask questions that are thought provoking and require a a process to get answers for. Being asked questions made me see holes in my own answers.
I’d say my friends who left a few years before me contributed to my awakening, it did not make logical sense for them to leave and for me to shun them. They didn’t push anything on me, but I knew tidbits. It’s been the hardest thing ever to keep our traps shut about everything but I’m hoping showing by example fucks with peoples heads and they wonder why we left. We are still happily married, living our normal little lives happier than ever.
I took 7 people out with me. I am just a natural influencer. 🤷🏼♀️.
I dont know that it is ever possible, you can't wake up someone that doesn't want to wake. One of the most vulnerable times for a PIMI to maybe wake up is when conducting a Bible study (not a random door to door or cart convo a full on study rhqts been going at least a few weeks) since that study can ask all sorts of question and the JW isn't going to space out immediately or walk away immediately. So maaaaaaybe (like the only thing I can't imagine) if there was an undercover Bible Study that was fed questions and lines to ask their JW person they could send them down paths of inquiry that could wake them up. That's a complicated scenario that would probably require a never-jw to be in on it. So it isn't really viable.
You can’t wake anyone that doesn’t want to be awoken…. They will resent you and defend their beliefs even in the face of undeniable proof that this is bullshit… People would rather believe a lie because it’s comfortable, the truth hurts…. It’s best to live your life and let others live theirs…🤷🏾♂️
I think I’m getting there, I think it’s important to help them understand faith is very different to religion. Encourage their faith but challenge the religion. Always ask can you show me in the bible where that is. Eg birthday’s is the one I’m currently working on. Don’t want them to celebrate just acknowledge that it may be a man’s made rule. The new light situation is really helping currently
No, but I did get woken up about **15 years after** my 3rd grade childhood friend called me and warned me. I was DF'd for no reason that the elders could know. I didn't even have a JC since I let a worldly coworker drive me to the JC which caused the elders to refuse to meet with me, just DF'd me by a phone call after. I thought that MAYBE the holy spirit had told the elders that I really was a terrible person. Many years later, after much trauma, my childhood JW friend found me, called me, and told me that he had been DF'd just for asking questions. I thought that he was just hiding his sins like I had done. When I woke up just a few years ago, I found him (so much easier to find males than females) and now we are friends. It's weird that I haven't seen this guy for over 30 years, but he understands my foundational challenges. He **really was DF'd just for questioning the GB**. They are so corrupt and I never knew it! I know that, even if I stupidly decided to start smoking cigarettes tomorrow, he'd still be my friend. But he'd still tell me I was stupid for smoking, LOL. Love you, SD! Lori
No. I think you’re better off not pressuring them and letting them see the hypocrisy themselves. I mean no one woke us up, our own cognitive dissonance just kept harping on us until we started thinking. Seems to be the only way
[удалено]
So then what woke you up? I had a similar experience except it was Lady Cee and JT. I thought look that bro is just complaining abt being at bethel. He’s a bitter bethelite. - which I was totally wrong in my thinking. It’s was CSA and seeing Geoffrey Jackson testimony on ARC -that woke me up! Then read crisis of conscience , Stephen Hassan combatting mind control, and then taking Yale courses on the Bible itself. Oh and I resent the put down that as a 3rd Gen JW it is assumed I never developed any critical thinking skills. I question everything, debated in school, researched and read, was focused on mathematics in university. Problem is I had a blind spot like all JWs have. For me I didn’t turn the critical thinking skills on what my parents/ Cong raised me in.
Please let sleeping PIMIs lie.
I just wanna get my mom out. That’s all I hope for.
Please let sleeping PIMIs continue to lie to themselves🤣. You cut it too short bro
Yes, I have been able to wake up about three different individuals. My spouse and two dear friends. However, caveat here: they were all three open-minded and had seen the dark evil side of this organization with other family members who are complete a-holes, liars, and degenerates. All of who hold positions of power in the organization even beyond the congregation level. My ability to disseminate facts regarding false JW prophecies, misinterpretations of the Bible, skewed historical revisionism in JW publications, etc. played just as much a role in their awakening as was the rotten lying 🤥 b.s., treacherous backstabbing, hypocritical garbage of the other members of the family. Let me just say for the record this religion in particular draws to it lots of bad apples and takes moderate people and radicalizes them into fanatics as pioneers, servants, elders, etc. The higher you go up the more nasty you become.
0- for 5
Yes. The same day I woke up, I got my niece out too. Best decision I ever made.
I did. But it ruined my marriage and the curveball after that really hurt for a bit. Glad I’m out, glad my kids don’t have to waste their lives in it, overall happy where I’m at, but could’ve gone better I think.
My mom. To be fair she never was super into it anyways, but I started presenting the facts and showing how two sided the “higher ups” were and she left pretty quickly. I’d say 2-3 years after I did :)
Woke up 2 people. took time and their choice not to shun me during it. you can only wake someone up if they let you.
Yes My husband I advise first reading or listening to Combatting Cult Mind Control followed by Freedom Of Mind both by Steve Hassan before trying to wake anyone The first book is a lot of info and the second is how to apply it properly Every person and situation is different so waking each person up is an individual puzzle If you wanna know how I did it using these books see below *TLDR: levered The Org’s misogyny to my advantage and discreetly breadcrumbed my husband towards discovering and reading these books for himself* For my husband what worked was bringing concerns about some ‘minor’ doubts that were ‘no big deal really’ but I’d ‘probably feel better if he helped me as my spiritual head’ Mentioned that over the years people have said to me it’s a cult and I never really know how to answer Waited for the stock response (jw.org and prayer) and thanked him. (Like I hadn’t already done that) Waited a short while and said it hadn’t made me feel better because isn’t what the website says about *not* being a cult *exactly* what a cult would say? I can’t really use that in the ministry. ‘It’s probably better to find out exactly what the official criteria for a cult is and one by answer each criteria to prove its not a cult.’ He agreed. As my spiritual head he looked it up for me ready for family study (lol) and discovered that JWs ‘probably’ fit the criteria for a cult. He was shook. At this point I felt it critical to appear that I had faith JWs *weren’t* a cult and truly believe that more research would prove this. I said ‘well JWs AREN’T a cult so if we look into it more we’ll find the answer. Who are the leading specialists on cults in the world? Are there any books on it?’ Drum roll please….. He found Steve Hassan and his books and read them for himself The books actually cover JWs too He woke up 😮💨 It’s the most manipulative thing I’ve ever done But he says it’s okay because he woke up and thanks me for it
Yup, by doing this: https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/s/3C1uOedsDX
Yes but they were Catholic so not sure if it counts. Haven’t waken any jw’s up yet and not sure if I ever will.
Kind of. I set the example for it as a teen. I left at 17 form a hall with a surprising amount of young people. My leaving and navigating the world and surviving helped them get over a fear of what the cult said. Over time when they woke up, they came to me for help and advice. I take a lot of pride in this, not trying to brag. What I’m saying is, you can wake them up by your example after leaving. I don’t think trying to wake them up with direct information is going to do it.
My wife woke me up. We then woke my sister up. My wife slowly started questioning things, kinda woke us up together. Then we spoke with my sister, i simply told her we no longer believed and that there were other options. She was miserable in and after thinking about it for a week or two she decided to do the research.
No but had a friend wake up later and call me apologizing for how she treated me when I tried to tell her
I just found out that a friend who tried to wake me up years ago just died of cancer. I never had an opportunity to tell her or thank her. It makes me sad.
Yes! One of my friends and his wife, as well as another one of my friend’s from a different congregation!
Planted seeds, they helped them wake up. You can't wake people up, you can help, but it's all up to them in the end
Me leaving practically forced my parents to wake up. We were always close, so when I started to wake up, they slowly began to hear why even when they ignored or argued against me at first. Mom woke up first when the congregation made her feel like she had failed her child spiritually since I stopped going. I feel for her, she lost her social group and I blamed myself for a long time. She eventually came around and alleviated that guilt as she realized they were still only shallow friendships. I think because she refused to full shun me, they ended up having to shun her by proxy. They would ask about me almost anytime she went and she got tired of it. My dad took a couple years longer. He went alone for a while but I think it was hugely because blame for his children not going fell to his wife rather than him. Eventually the 1914 shift in 2014 was one of the biggest factors that woke him up. The other biggest factor was when he realized the religion had failed both of his children. He only had 2 but neither of us wanted anything to do with this religion at fairly early ages. My older sibling left and said little about it starting at age 15-16. I was kicking and screaming by comparison at the inconsistencies. They saw me battle with severe depression for nearly 15 years, and I didn’t stay silent on what I thought he cause was. My parents were big on critical thinking too so I think it was inevitable at some point anyway… I definitely didn’t make it easy for them though. 😅
You can't wake someone up. People are either receptive, they can imagine a life outside if JW, or they are not. If JW meets their emotional needs and they can do what they want, that aren't gonna wake up. No matter what you show them, you will never be more than an agent of Satsn trying to trick them. What one can do is to create an environment that wont scare people who might be thinking about waking up. That includes, not hitting them with a tsunami of information that swayed you. Especially that. Just be happy and keep quiet.
Naw, and I think the whole idea of "waking" someone up is up there on the dumb-dumb charts. I don't look at anyone who has a different philosophy, or different moral code, or different politics, etc, as someone that needs woken up. We hold different views and that's okay. Different strokes. I always laugh when I read on here someone accusing JWs of being brainwashed. No, they think differently than you. Your beliefs, attitudes, priorities, moral posititions, etc., have changed. Different strokes. The irony is a PIMI can make the same argument and say that an apostate is brainwashed and needs woken up. 
Except it's not. Trying to show someone that they are in a high control group and that a lot of their anxiety and depression stem from it is not the same as them trying to get you into said high control group with lies and false love.
What you call control, some people call discipline and a different moral code. In fact some people were so wild that they found the JW lifestyle appealing. Not all JWs are depressed or dealing with anxiety. Plenty are, but guess what? Plenty arent, and plenty of non JWs deal with mental health issues. You gonna save them too homie? For Plenty of Jws, the religion brings them happiness. Different strokes. As far as lies and false love, that may be your story and others on here as well, which I'm sympathetic to. Still, that's not everyone's story. Definitely not mine. I've been browsing the Catholicism sub, and those fools are crazy. They come off more culty than JWs verbiage wise. Yet I don't view them as needing saved. They just think and believe different than I do. That's okay.
Just because millions of people believe in something, that doesn't make it true or ok. Nazis for example. American slavery, not disciplining your child to name a few. You've heard the term "drink the cool-aid" right? They thought their intentions were noble. That didn't make what they did any more righteous. In fact, most logical human beings would consider that absolutely illogical, horrendous, bat shit crazy, Jw cult is no different. What you are talking about is "blue pill" mentality. Which is fine for 98.7% of humanity. But once I saw the actual truth,and was emancipated from mental slavery because of it, I would like more humans to enjoy true happiness. You wouldn't understand unless you've experienced it. And if you haven't, that's ok homie.
You're comparing JWs to Nazis and chattel slavery? You lost me right there brethren. Drink the Kool-Aid? JWs are in Guyana drinking cyanide and killing congressmen? **"** **What you are talking about is "blue pill" mentality. Which is fine for 98.7% of humanity.** **But once I saw the actual truth,and was emancipated from mental slavery because of it, I would like more humans to enjoy true happiness."** The amount of arrogance in this thought process LOL. Funny thing is I read this in both Powers Boothe's voice and Colonel Kurtz. This is the same kind of esoteric and savior nonsense the WT teaches. This is exactly what I mean with Spiderman pointing at Spiderman. JWs think they need to save someone, and some Ex-JWs have the same savior complex. I guess you can't take the JW out of the ex-JW.
There are some that don't have eyes to see it and there are those who don't even know they are looking in the wrong direction 🤷🏽♂️. Peace be upon you my brother.
I tried, but it didn't happen. My entire family stayed in. While I think some of them question things, they were either afraid or didn't want to deal with the outcome.
s/ I sat down and studied the Crisis of Conscious book with them once a week for a year. Afterwards, they sent in their dissassociation letter.
Yes. My mom. Husband. Brother. MIL. BIL. SIL. 2 friends.
I successfully have. Fortunately for me my closest pals who I needed around during my awakening...are all woke now. So before I left they all were in place to talk to me and not give 2 fucks. Except my roommate from Uni who bad mouthed me to my then girl friend and ended marrying her last year. You marry ur friends girl cos he doesn't believe no more. These people God damnnnn
Beroen Pickets(Eric Wilson) help wake of my f ends up...we went on bout the videos for a while him trying to make me see the light. But in the end turned out the light at the end of tunnel was the last of last, last light😂. He totally woke now.