My Book
AWAKENING OF A JEHOVAH'S WITNESS: Escape From the Watchtower Society
Who are these annoyingly persistent people known as Jehovah’s Witnesses, whose fervent house-to-house evangelizing work brings them to knock on our doors bright and early Saturday mornings, disturbing our rare opportunity to get a few extra winks? A dramatic, compelling, and engrossing story, sprinkled with humor and wit, enables readers to get a glimpse into the secretive, controlling world of Jehovah’s Witnesses by walking a few miles in the shoes of one who was enslaved in this cult-like religious organization for twenty-five years.
Few are the people whose lives have not been touched in some way by Jehovah’s Witnesses, either by direct contact or by having a friend or family member lost to the Watchtower. Because of the increasing presence of the Witnesses not only in their door-to-door preaching activity, but also on street corners and even in shopping malls giving their literature away for free, people more than ever need to have the opportunity to hear the inside story before they fall prey to the group’s deceptions. Once caught in their sticky web, leaving is no easy matter—-even when one desperately wants to leave.
This book sounds a warning, exposing the reader to "the rest of the story"—-which the public will never hear from the Witnesses themselves, as they are thoroughly indoctrinated to present a very positive and rosy picture of life inside their Organization—-before they fall prey to the group’s seductions, and become enmeshed in the Organization to the point where getting out of it seems an impossibility.
"Jehovah’s Witnesses are the happiest people on Earth!", so claims the Watchtower Society—-but the author’s experiences attest that their claim is not true. Behind the façade of smiling faces displayed for public appeal, unhappiness is rampant as the Witnesses suffer abuse at the uncompassionate hands of the Watchtower Society. Once lured into the Organization, one quickly becomes an automaton, marching in lockstep to the rigid rules and demands of the Watchtower Society--who purports they are the sole possessor of religious truth, obedience to whom provides the only protection from God’s ever-imminent global battle of Armageddon. Many lives have been and continue to be lost as Witnesses follow the ever-changing, zigzagging doctrines of the Watchtower Society, who lays claim to being the only channel of communication between God and humankind.
This book also presents the unique story of a woman and her therapist as they unravel the damage the Watchtower Society has done to her mind and emotions, how he helped her find her way out of the dizzying maze of circular thinking that permeates the minds of Jehovah’s Witnesses, and cope with the doubts that threatened to spiral her life out of control. It is the story of how he guided her journey to reclaim that which is rightfully hers—-her life, and her ability to think for herself.
FROM THE AUTHOR
No one is immune to influence from the persuasive, seductive cult-like religious group known as Jehovah’s Witnesses under leadership of the Watchtower Society. The public needs to be warned. The public needs to be alerted to the lures that this group uses to ensnare innocent people. The public needs to be protected against wasting many years of precious life following the alluring promises about the future world government under the Watchtower Society that Jehovah’s Witnesses dance in front of their wondering eyes.
Many have fallen victim to the deceptions of this Organization; the nightmare that these millions of people entered could have been avoided if they had been aware of the deceitful, entrapping, manipulative ways of the Watchtower Society.
This book is not a doctrinal treatise about Jehovah’s Witnesses; instead, it is an issues-oriented human interest story that reveals the inside story of twenty-five years of my adult life in this Christian sect. It deals with many women’s issues as seen through the colored lens of the Watchtower Society. It spells out my vulnerability to the enticements that the Witnesses use, the many abuses I suffered while I was in the group, the horrendous psychological struggles I experienced while trying to escape their mind-control methods and induced phobias, and how a psychologist helped me to finally succeed in breaking free from their grasp.
My hope is that readers will take away with them an increased understanding of how extremely difficult leaving a legalistic, controlling group like Jehovah’s Witnesses can be—even when a person desperately wants to leave.