The Story Behind My Stories

“There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect.”

Ronald  Reagan

In 1973, the year I graduated from college, I erected a barrier to my own progress. 

For many years I had explored various religious traditions.  Among these were Buddhism, and several mystic practices that later called “new age.”  I explored Tarot, numerology and the I Ching.  For several years I expended considerable time, money and energy on Astrology, even teaching an evening class on the subject. During this time, “Jesus Freaks” became a common sight on the Washington State University campus.

I had little interest in Christianity.  I regarded it as a haven for the spiritually lazy, and money-grabbing preachers.  However, through 1972, during a time of mental stress, I grew more interested in the message they were preaching. My Bible reading convinced me that Jesus’ message had meaning, but that most of those that claimed to follow Him missed the point.  I believed that His message required something greater than standing on the campus mall harassing students trying to get to class.

In the spring of 1972, I regained contact with a friend from my freshman year.  In the intervening two years he had joined his mother and sister in the Jehovah’s Witness religion.  He and I engaged in an informal study of his beliefs.  I liked much of what I heard; the Witnesses rejected the doctrines of hellfire and the Trinity, two orthodox Christian beliefs I found absurd.  They believed governments evil and refused to go to war, two values that fit my world view.  They also taught the imminent destruction of evil, and establishment of a “new system” of peace on the earth.

In November 1973, I became a Witness and stopped thinking for myself.  The Witnesses presented themselves as an independent group that studied the Bible without regard to prior dogmatic interpretation.  They claimed their leadership, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, had well trained and unbiased scholars producing their study material.  Certainly their study aids looked detailed and well developed, and the Witnesses I met seemed open and friendly.

Unfortunately, it was all deception, smoke and mirrors.  The Watchtower’s many predictions of coming apocalypse have all failed.  The religion stifles individual expression and punishes any deviation from its innumerable laws with strictly enforced shunning.  A false face of friendliness and goodwill shown to newcomers hides a dark side of the organization. Many seemingly ordinary activities provoke expulsion and shunning by the Witnesses, including voting and celebrating birthdays or holidays.  More seriously, the Watchtower prohibits blood transfusions, even in the most life threatening situations. The religion also strongly discourages advanced education and personal advancement.

In 1988, I woke up fully to the false nature of the Watchtower religion.  I also found that my wife had already awakened (a funny story about this discovery will come later).  My inquisitive mind began again to explore the history and teachings of the Witnesses.  After a long period of research, and gradually breaking with the constraints on individual freedom (we voted and celebrated birthdays and Christmas) we mailed a long letter terminating our relationship with the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

That event is now over twenty years behind me.  I have found that I could not let go of a fascination with the subject of mind control groups, and the damage they cause.  As noted above hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Jehovah’s Witnesses sacrifice their lives to the ban on blood transfusions.  The Watchtower Society’s “Awake” magazine even applauded the deaths of many young children (Awake May 22, 1994).  Millions have passed up the opportunity to gain a university education.  The May 22, 1969 Awake Magazine told young Witnesses not to waste their time going to college, because the New System might arrive before they graduated. (Awake May 22, 1969)  Those words appeared the month before I graduated from high school.  I will begin collecting social security in a few months. 

Cult experts agree that the deceptive techniques used by organizations like the Witnesses extend beyond religion; to the worlds of politics and business.  How do these societies operate? How do they recruit and control members?  How did I, the supposed intellectual, fail to do even the most basic research?  I had access to a university library with over two million volumes, and never looked up “Jehovah’s Witnesses” or “Watchtower Bible and Tract Society.”

These questions continue to spark my curiosity.  Alcoholics Anonymous presents itself as a place where like-minded people share their “experience, strength and hope.”  I would like to share my experience strength and hope regarding deceptive religions and other groups.  I thought about writing a work of non-fiction, but decided I had nothing to add to the body of work already available.  However, in the late 1990’s, I hit on a new way to look at the issue.

I created my own cult.