EXiting the JW Cult: a Healing Handbook PDF Download

Author: Bonnie Zieman
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781508477136
Category : Christian sects
Languages : en
Pages : 0

View

Book Description
The author, raised as Jehovah's Witness, outlines the challenges of leaving the sect and provides valuable advice to others who have recently, or wish to leave.

Author: Bonnie Zieman
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781517270186
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 240

View

Book Description
Bonnie Zieman was raised to believe she would live forever in an earthly paradise as a survivor of the impending Battle of Armageddon, but when a Jehovah's Witness childhood friend died at the age of ten, that belief was irrevocably shattered. So began Bonnie's long journey to break free of the Jehovah's Witnesses. In this engrossing memoir, the retired psychotherapist chronicles her many years of indoctrination as a repressed and unhappy Witness trying to find a way out without tearing her whole life apart. Her experiences provide vital insights for those attempting to understand what it's like to live under the destructive influence of an all-controlling cult, despite having doubts. Bonnie Zieman goes on to describe her process of creating a life outside the Jehovah's Witness cult, dealing with the enforced separation from her birth family, getting an education, and building her private practice as she and her husband raise three children. Enhanced by her perspective as a psychotherapist, Fading Out of the JW Cult discusses the effects of groupthink, undue influence, mind control, cognitive dissonance, family dynamics, and social isolation, and will empower anyone struggling to exit or recover from an abusive situation.

Author: Bonnie Zieman
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781535313827
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

View

Book Description
In an age and culture that places high value on personal freedom, it is shocking to discover how many intelligent, competent people find themselves caught in the suffocating, sticky webs of oppressive, high-control groups. Coercive, manipulative organizations can include groups such as: extremist fundamentalist sects, terrorist organizations, radical political movements, polygamist communes, human trafficking rings, doomsday cults, multi-marketing schemes, criminal gangs, and so many more. When brave souls dare to leave such high-control groups, they exit needing to reclaim their life, mind, identity, autonomy, emotional equilibrium and to heal the wounds that result from being manipulated, coerced, abused and exploited. The Challenge to Heal is designed to help anyone recover from the inevitable consequences of losing control over one's life - consequences such as issues with self-esteem, anger, learned helplessness, depression, fear, guilt, self-recrimination, psychosomatic ailments, to name but a few. Chapters in this unique recovery guide cover topics such as: understanding and managing the predictable challenges of breaking with a once valued belief system, Utopian goals, and fellow group members; learning to cope with the difficult emotions that will arise; dealing with gui

Author: Kyria Abrahams
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1416556869
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 368

View

Book Description
A stand-up comedian who was brought up as a Jehovah's Witness describes how her childhood was haunted by perpetual doomsday prophecies about an imminent apocalypse in which her non-believing neighbors and schoolmates were doomed.

Author: Amber Scorah
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 073522255X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 290

View

Book Description
"A fascinating glimpse into the consciousness of being an outsider in every possible way, and what it takes to find your path into the life you'd like to lead."--Nylon A riveting memoir of losing faith and finding freedom while a covert missionary in one of the world's most restrictive countries. A third-generation Jehovah's Witness, Amber Scorah had devoted her life to sounding God's warning of impending Armageddon. She volunteered to take the message to China, where the preaching she did was illegal and could result in her expulsion or worse. Here, she had some distance from her community for the first time. Immersion in a foreign language and culture--and a whole new way of thinking--turned her world upside down, and eventually led her to lose all that she had been sure was true. As a proselytizer in Shanghai, using fake names and secret codes to evade the authorities' notice, Scorah discreetly looked for targets in public parks and stores. To support herself, she found work at a Chinese language learning podcast, hiding her real purpose from her coworkers. Now with a creative outlet, getting to know worldly people for the first time, she began to understand that there were other ways of seeing the world and living a fulfilling life. When one of these relationships became an "escape hatch," Scorah's loss of faith culminated in her own personal apocalypse, the only kind of ending possible for a Jehovah's Witness. Shunned by family and friends as an apostate, Scorah was alone in Shanghai and thrown into a world she had only known from the periphery--with no education or support system. A coming of age story of a woman already in her thirties, this unforgettable memoir examines what it's like to start one's life over again with an entirely new identity. It follows Scorah to New York City, where a personal tragedy forces her to look for new ways to find meaning in the absence of religion. With compelling, spare prose, Leaving the Witness traces the bittersweet process of starting over, when everything one's life was built around is gone.

Author: Dan Bergher
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 128

View

Book Description
How to leave the Watchtower AND help your JW family members so that they leave together with you? This Manual will be your guide if you want to leave JWs but among them you still have: Your spouse, children, family members, friends and work related relationships. I know how you feel: I was one of JWs for 25 years. Hundreds have been helped by me personally, using these methods since 2008. These are hundreds of happy stories and hundreds of improved lives and saved marriages.Now, these methods are available in this book.In Which Areas Will This Book Help You? Use five ways to disprove that there was no "governing body" in the first century C.E., just from the New World Translation (NWT). Once JWs see there was no "governing body," it is easier for them to leave. Choose from five exit strategies. Learn to disprove the teaching about the year 1914, just from the NWT. How to talk to your JW spouse and family members to gain them and leave the WT together. Should you report your time from the ministry? Should you prove the Watchtower wrong? Should you display your doubts? What to do if your spouse already views you as an apostate and wants separation or divorce. How to use a ruse in your exit strategy. Which meetings to attend and how to behave? How to talk to the elders in the case of a judicial committee. How to mitigate the effects of your exit. How to make new friends. How to leave without holding a grudge and with peace of mind. Learn From Rahab (Sample From a Chapter) Use a ruse to protect yourself and your family when leaving JWs. The Watchtower praises Rahab (Joshua 2; 6:17-25): "Rahab's ruse worked! ... Using a simple strategy, she had misdirected men who had no right to the truth and she had saved innocent servants of Jehovah." [w13 11/1] Ruse: Misdirecting those who have no right to the truth. Not telling the truth to those who do not have the right to the truth. According to the WT, the state officials do not have the right to the truth: For example, to gain legal recognition in some countries (e.g. in the Eastern Europe), the WT representatives stated, that JWs do not teach their members to "abstain from blood" transfusions. The organization told its members that it was necessary to resort to a ruse to be granted legal recognition. You can and you should start using a ruse to protect yourself and your family right now. You can also use a ruse to win your JW members over. Be Like Rahab. It might bring you peace of mind to define ruse in the following way: Not telling the truth to those who do not have the right to the truth at this time: those who would do harm to you, to your spouse, to your family. You can misdirect and mislead people like this by giving them a false impression. You can freely use a ruse with anybody (including the elders) who could harm you or your loved ones in any way, to protect yourself and your family.Reflect What kind of ruse (strategy) can you start using with your JW spouse and family members not to lose them but to win them over? What kind of ruse can you start using within the congregation and with the elders? What new possibilities will a ruse create in your life? This was a short sample from a chapter in the book. The methods from this Exit Manual can help you and your family the same way these have helped many others.

Author: Charles Love
Publisher: Xulon Press
ISBN: 1597815071
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 118

View

Book Description

Author: Bonnie Zieman
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781546894681
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

View

Book Description
People who have been subjected to exploitation, isolation and thought control in a cult and who work up the courage to leave, do so with many psychological and emotional wounds. Many of them seek out therapy to help recover from the damaging after-effects. Unfortunately, cult victims often report that therapists just do not seem to 'get' all that they endured in the cult, and all the challenges they face once out of the cult. In fact, many cult victims abandon therapy, feeling that their therapist just did not understand the the degree to which they had been controlled, repressed, exploited and abused. Many recount that they felt their experience seemed to be discounted as something they just needed to put behind them. Due to the advent of the Internet and the easy access to information it provides, more and more cult members are discovering just how much they have been deceived, coerced and abused. As they make their exit from high-control groups, extremist religions and cults, a whole new psychotherapy client population is looking for help to recover their emotional well-being, intellectual independence and ability to function in the world outside of the cult. Since most psychologists and psychotherapists do not receive much, if any, instruction about cult dynamics and the destructive effects of such intrusive dynamics on cult members, therapists may be ill-equipped to truly understand and help this unique and growing client population. With this book, Bonnie Zieman, a former cult member, a recently retired psychotherapist, and the author of four other books on recovery from high-control abuse, provides a useful reference tool for therapists who need to inform themselves about cult abuse and its aftermath. This one-of-a-kind book offers a summary outline of typical cult controls and the probable resulting effects on those subjected to them. Therapists can use this book as a primer to bring themselves up to speed on the topic - until such time as they decide if they want to take more formal training in order to help former cult members reclaim their authentic self and rebuild a self-directed life.

Author: Lloyd Evans
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780995669154
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 154

View

Book Description
Jehovah's Witnesses number into the millions globally and are well known for their public evangelism about God's kingdom. But beneath the facade of brotherly love and organizational unity lies a captive organization in which doubts are stifled and dissent is ruthlessly crushed. Once a Witness stops believing, they face being ostracized as a loathed "mentally diseased" apostate. They must navigate a labyrinth of obstacles and dilemmas due to the organization's cruel policy of shunning former members. Lloyd Evans is a well known ex-Witness writer and activist, and in his second book he draws on his firsthand, insider knowledge as a former elder to guide would-be escapees through the minefield that awaits them. How should elders be dealt with? What resources are available for objective research? What should someone do if they are threatened with judicial action? What about coming clean to family members? How does someone go about rebuilding their social circle? What precautions should be taken to maintain privacy when browsing apostate material online? All these questions and more are answered in How to Escape From Jehovah's Witnesses, described by Paul Grundy of JWfacts.com as "an invaluable tool in helping [former Witnesses] move on as efficiently and painlessly as possible."

Author: Lloyd Evans
Publisher: Jle Publishing
ISBN: 9780995669109
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

View

Book Description
Jehovah's Witnesses, well known for their enthusiastic evangelism, are a global religious movement boasting over 8 million members. Despite being a familiar sight on doorsteps and street corners, little is known about their doctrines and practices. What are their expectations regarding Armageddon, and who do they believe will survive? How do they justify their ban on blood transfusions? What happens to members who decide to leave? In this remarkably candid part-memoir, part-history guide, former Witness Lloyd Evans comprehensively explores the religion of his upbringing, charting the organization's metamorphosis from unassuming 19th Century brethren to global brand in the modern age. The Witness rules on sex are dissected, as are their far-reaching ramifications on the private lives of millions of devotees. Evans also delves into the controversies surrounding child abuse and the prohibition on blood transfusions with the aid of first hand accounts from those who have been personally impacted. Intertwined with the historical narrative and commentary is the story of the author's journey from devout Witness youth to outspoken ex-Witness activist and atheist. Evans lays bare the circumstances leading to his "awakening" with startling honesty and reveals how the heartbreaking loss of his mother played a profound role in keeping long-held doubts suppressed. In the final chapters, the author discusses the various means by which Witnesses are controlled by their leadership. Evans analyzes the role of shunning (disfellowshipping) and the stigmatization of "apostates" in enforcing loyalty among Witnesses, and reflects on the indifference of society in general to human rights violations by high-control groups. The phenomenon of fundamentalist brainwashing, or "undue influence," is also scrutinized, and those in search of a new life free from its pervasive effects are given reasons for hope. Rather than being a sensationalist rant by an embittered ex-member, The Reluctant Apostate offers a relaxed, good-humored tour of Witness history and teachings supported by extensive references (to be found in the "Notes" section). Though written predominantly with the non-Witness reader in mind, special boxes are also provided for Jehovah's Witness readers. Reviews "Both memoir and reference book, Lloyd Evans' work is an extensive compilation of Jehovah's Witness history and theology. In his honest and exhaustively researched expose, Evans has written what is sure to be the most important book on the religion in this century. The Reluctant Apostate is a must-read for Jehovah's Witnesses and anyone else who has been touched by the faith." -Scott Terry, author of Cowboys, Armageddon and the Truth "Insight only an 'insider' can bring to a subject difficult to understand for those who have never been part of this world, and unthinkable to contemplate for those inside its bubble. Lloyd does a magnificent job of speaking to both audiences and everyone in between. Compassion for the plight of those still held captive bleeds through every page." -Mike Rinder, former senior executive of the Church of Scientology, as featured on the A&E series Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath "A compelling and informative window on the world of the Jehovah's Witnesses that will be a vital and life changing resource for former members and many others too in forming an authentic understanding of this group, its beliefs, methods and effects on individuals and families." -Professor Rod Dubrow-Marshall, Ph.D. Co-Editor International Journal of Cultic Studies and co-founder RETIRN UK Dr. Linda Dubrow-Marshall, Ph.D. Co-founder RETIRN UK