Jw Letters, Update #4, and the buried talent

Jahrule said:
Does anybody remember the huge issue with the smurfs?
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yep...the things you hear.

I had a brother tell me many years ago, that in Jacksonville Florida, at a District Convention, they played Queen's song, "Another One Bites the Dust" backwards from the platform. (I'm not even going to address the unlikelihood that the song was actually played from the platform, but you never know!) I have heard the song backwards, and sorry, I just don't get it, and I never have. Maybe it's the limitation of my understanding, but I just don't see the point of recording a message backwards, and I'm sorry, I am just not buying the "subliminal message", garbage. I have a hard enough time understanding what people are saying and talking about when they are speaking, the NORMAL and natural way. I'm just not buying and I never have nor will I ever in the future, that a message I don't understand is a message at all! I could listen to a song in a Foreign language a million times, but until someone teaches me, and more importantly, I put forth the effort to learn that language, I will NEVER understand it!!!!!!!!! But somehow we know and understand a message played backwards, but only subliminally? In other words your conscious mind doesn't understand it, but your subconscious does? Sorry, it doesn't pass the smell test! Not to mention that the claim it's saying something backwards is like seeing images in the clouds. "I guess it looks like a deer"
 
Nomex said:
yep...the things you hear.

I had a brother tell me many years ago, that in Jacksonville Florida, at a District Convention, they played Queen's song, "Another One Bites the Dust" backwards from the platform. (I'm not even going to address the unlikelihood that the song was actually played from the platform, but you never know!) I have heard the song backwards, and sorry, I just don't get it, and I never have. Maybe it's the limitation of my understanding, but I just don't see the point of recording a message backwards, and I'm sorry, I am just not buying the "subliminal message", garbage. I have a hard enough time understanding what people are saying and talking about when they are speaking, the NORMAL and natural way. I'm just not buying and I never have nor will I ever in the future, that a message I don't understand is a message at all! I could listen to a song in a Foreign language a million times, but until someone teaches me, and more importantly, I put forth the effort to learn that language, I will NEVER understand it!!!!!!!!! But somehow we know and understand a message played backwards, but only subliminally? In other words your conscious mind doesn't understand it, but your subconscious does? Sorry, it doesn't pass the smell test! Not to mention that the claim it's saying something backwards is like seeing images in the clouds. "I guess it looks like a deer"
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How on earth did the brother know that the noise coming from the convention speakers was Another One Bites the Dust?? That is one handy gift to possess!! Please tell me more about the Smurfs, didn't hear anything about them apart from the silly songs of course 😆
 
BARNABY THE DOG. said:
Like this old song? One of the best spirituals about slave Labour.
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That was a blast from the past!! Best thing about YouTube 😍 (and how to fix your boiler when it breaks down of course!) the kids have ruined it now by using it to show us how to put make-up on or how to "wear" our Chloe handbags 😂 both of which I had no idea how to do before YouTube was invented 😆
 
Proverbs 14 v 15 said:
That was a blast from the past!! Best thing about YouTube 😍 (and how to fix your boiler when it breaks down of course!) the kids have ruined it now by using it to show us how to put make-up on or how to "wear" our Chloe handbags 😂 both of which I had no idea how to do before YouTube was invented 😆
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I didn’t know how to “wear” a Chloe bag either, and my makeup made me look more like a drag queen than a rugby player, so I found YouTube a great help in those areas.
 
BARNABY THE DOG. said:
I didn’t know how to “wear” a Chloe bag either, and my makeup made me look more like a drag queen than a rugby player, so I found YouTube a great help in those areas.
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No need for a YouTube video to learn how to put your makeup on Barney ☺️ just remember, less is more, fresh and natural, and if you really must wear false eyelashes then one pair will do!! Sometimes I used to mystery shop for Chloe, and the staff would "teach" me how to "wear" the bag, my goodness, these designer brands are literally laughing at us, all the way to the bank. I can't abide mystery shopping for any of the designer brands, I struggle to supress my anger and fake my enthusiasm, give me Cash Converters any day of the week 🤪
 
Proverbs 14 v 15 said:
How on earth did the brother know that the noise coming from the convention speakers was Another One Bites the Dust?? That is one handy gift to possess!! Please tell me more about the Smurfs, didn't hear anything about them apart from the silly songs of course 😆
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I have never understood the watchtower obsession with smurfs. I believe it was something to do with their colour. It was after my time though, so I of course carried on collecting them in vast quantities. I was there though for the panic over Kate Bush - the woman who sang like fingernails being drawn backwards over a blackboard (chalk board). One elder who had been smitten by her wailing and bought her record dutifully threw it away in belief that she was in some way satanic in her screeching. But it was head lice that brought Jehovah’s name into disrepute and whole families were missing from the congregation for weeks during peak infestation time at schools, while the elders discreetly whispered references to family “upset”, too fearful to mention the dreaded facts lest satan be invoked! In the sixties though, there was a watchtower fascination with a Beatles song that gave a recipe for some cake if played backwards. I presumed at the time that they were referring to “pot” loaves of the sort my mother used to bake to take the pain out of her arthritis. She used to grow her own in her greenhouse. We can all be thankful to watchtower for their diligence in going undercover in researching the danger of smurfs - and for clinking glasses. 👍
 
BARNABY THE DOG. said:
I have never understood the watchtower obsession with smurfs. I believe it was something to do with their colour. It was after my time though, so I of course carried on collecting them in vast quantities. I was there though for the panic over Kate Bush - the woman who sang like fingernails being drawn backwards over a blackboard (chalk board). One elder who had been smitten by her wailing and bought her record dutifully threw it away in belief that she was in some way satanic in her screeching. But it was head lice that brought Jehovah’s name into disrepute and whole families were missing from the congregation for weeks during peak infestation time at schools, while the elders discreetly whispered references to family “upset”, too fearful to mention the dreaded facts lest satan be invoked! In the sixties though, there was a watchtower fascination with a Beatles song that gave a recipe for some cake if played backwards. I presumed at the time that they were referring to “pot” loaves of the sort my mother used to bake to take the pain out of her arthritis. She used to grow her own in her greenhouse. We can all be thankful to watchtower for their diligence in going undercover in researching the danger of smurfs - and for clinking glasses. 👍
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It's a pity they didn't put the same effort into researching the injections eh? Or at least say "sorry, it's above our paygrade" like Geoffrey Jackson said about who gets to be part of the great crowd 🙄 Anyway, the Beatles song was Strawberry Fields, and when you played the end backwards it sounded like "Paul is dead, Paul is dead"!! It was all part of the conspiracy that the real Paul McCartney had died and a doppleganger had taken his place 😅 the cake thing you're thinking of is Richard Harrison's song McArthur Park where he sang about someone leaving his cake out in the rain and he'd lost the recipe and so couldn't make it again 🤭 not too demonic, just very careless 😆
 
Proverbs 14 v 15 said:
Anyway, the Beatles song was Strawberry Fields, and when you played the end backwards it sounded like "Paul is dead, Paul is dead"!!
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Oh man, this brings back memories of my looking at every opportunity to run some of my 45s backwards on the phonograph / record player to pick up on what "hidden" message could be heard, after there was a big deal at the Baptist church about backwards-recorded hidden messages in then-modern music. The only one I ever really could make out back then was when I played my 45rpm of Queen's Another One Bites the Dust backwards to show off the "we all smoke marijuana" that was in there. But the whole backwards-message deal was huge back in the late 70s, early 80s, if memory serves.

—Timothy
 
Proverbs 14 v 15 said:
How on earth did the brother know that the noise coming from the convention speakers was Another One Bites the Dust?? That is one handy gift to possess!! Please tell me more about the Smurfs, didn't hear anything about them apart from the silly songs of course 😆
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I forget the exact context, but there was a huge Smurf controversy and JW land a few years ago. I'm sure if you Google it or search YouTube somebody has the story.
 
a believer said:
Oh man, this brings back memories of my looking at every opportunity to run some of my 45s backwards on the phonograph / record player to pick up on what "hidden" message could be heard, after there was a big deal at the Baptist church about backwards-recorded hidden messages in then-modern music. The only one I ever really could make out back then was when I played my 45rpm of Queen's Another One Bites the Dust backwards to show off the "we all smoke marijuana" that was in there. But the whole backwards-message deal was huge back in the late 70s, early 80s, if memory serves.

—Timothy
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I never knew that about the Queen song!! Anyway, all the silly, unimportant conspiracies back in the day have certainly served their purpose well.. I've lost count how many people today believe that the plandemic and injection "stories" are just "conspiracies" like the "Paul is Dead" blah blah blah.. And the GB ( with Satan's backing) are doing something similar concerning Jehovah's name and word, clearly promoting that sooooo much of their "teachings" either weren't true or they "just don't know " Leaving the public to think that the GB have probably got the rest of it "wrong" and leaving Jehovah God looking "silly" I wouldn't like to be in their shoes that's for sure 😵‍💫
 
Proverbs 14 v 15 said:
It's a pity they didn't put the same effort into researching the injections eh? Or at least say "sorry, it's above our paygrade" like Geoffrey Jackson said about who gets to be part of the great crowd 🙄 Anyway, the Beatles song was Strawberry Fields, and when you played the end backwards it sounded like "Paul is dead, Paul is dead"!! It was all part of the conspiracy that the real Paul McCartney had died and a doppleganger had taken his place 😅 the cake thing you're thinking of is Richard Harrison's song McArthur Park where he sang about someone leaving his cake out in the rain and he'd lost the recipe and so couldn't make it again 🤭 not too demonic, just very careless 😆
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Yes that’s true: “leaving his cake out in the rain….”. Pure poetry, I remember thinking, on a par with Keats, Yates and Shakespeare, let alone Tennyson and then, Wordsworth: “ I wandered lonely as a cloud and left my cake out in the rain. And though I lost the recipe I saw a host of golden daffodils again.” Richard Harrison, the last of the great poets. I expect to see a memorial to him in Westminster Abby. Maybe a soggy cake in Italian marble. I wonder if you could get disfellowshipped for leaving your cake out in the rain?
 
Proverbs 14 v 15 said:
No need for a YouTube video to learn how to put your makeup on Barney ☺️ just remember, less is more, fresh and natural, and if you really must wear false eyelashes then one pair will do!! Sometimes I used to mystery shop for Chloe, and the staff would "teach" me how to "wear" the bag, my goodness, these designer brands are literally laughing at us, all the way to the bank. I can't abide mystery shopping for any of the designer brands, I struggle to supress my anger and fake my enthusiasm, give me Cash Converters any day of the week 🤪
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Ok proverbs….you have my attention. How does one mystery shop? Would you find a Chloe bag in a butchers shop or an undertakers for instance? Or is it something women do naturally like go out shopping in the hope of finding something to buy that they always needed? I go into bookshops and ask if they actually have something worth reading. I know I shouldn’t provoke them but I can’t help myself.
 
BARNABY THE DOG. said:
Yes that’s true: “leaving his cake out in the rain….”. Pure poetry, I remember thinking, on a par with Keats, Yates and Shakespeare, let alone Tennyson and then, Wordsworth: “ I wandered lonely as a cloud and left my cake out in the rain. And though I lost the recipe I saw a host of golden daffodils again.” Richard Harrison, the last of the great poets. I expect to see a memorial to him in Westminster Abby. Maybe a soggy cake in Italian marble. I wonder if you could get disfellowshipped for leaving your cake out in the rain?
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You're mad Barney 😂
 
BARNABY THE DOG. said:
Ok proverbs….you have my attention. How does one mystery shop? Would you find a Chloe bag in a butchers shop or an undertakers for instance? Or is it something women do naturally like go out shopping in the hope of finding something to buy that they always needed? I go into bookshops and ask if they actually have something worth reading. I know I shouldn’t provoke them but I can’t help myself.
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Register with all the mystery shopping companies out there and start your journey 😀 I tell you, I wish I'd have found this industry 30yrs ago, I'd have been retired 10yrs ago!! I've mystery shopped "farm shops" before but none of them had any designer brands in stock 😅 On the other hand, I mystery shop dozens of undertakers and the price of their "designer" coffins are phenomenal!!
 
Proverbs 14 v 15 said:
Register with all the mystery shopping companies out there and start your journey 😀 I tell you, I wish I'd have found this industry 30yrs ago, I'd have been retired 10yrs ago!! I've mystery shopped "farm shops" before but none of them had any designer brands in stock 😅 On the other hand, I mystery shop dozens of undertakers and the price of their "designer" coffins are phenomenal!!
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What on earth are mystery shopping companies? What guys get up to up north is anybody’s guess.
 
BARNABY THE DOG. said:
What on earth are mystery shopping companies? What guys get up to up north is anybody’s guess.
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When I was managing a store in Ionia here in Michigan years back, we had mystery shoppers come through. They were hired to come through and find out how a store's shopping experience was for their customers, from the walk-in greeting all the way through to the bagger loading the groceries. They'd turn their survey in to the company running the gambit, and our store would receive a report on how we rocked it with our customer service experience (well, WE always did, anyhow). Local stores here, such as Meijer and Kroger will also see mystery shoppers come through.
 
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a believer said:
When I was managing a store in Ionia here in Michigan years back, we had mystery shoppers come through. They were hired to come through and find out how a store's shopping experience was for their customers, from the walk-in greeting all the way through to the bagger loading the groceries. They'd turn their survey in to the company running the gambit, and our store would receive a report on how we rocked it with our customer service experience (well, WE always did, anyhow). Local stores here, such as Meijer and Kroger will also see mystery shoppers come through.
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I can't think of anywhere that doesn't have some type of mystery shopping program in place. I'm never bored that's for sure!! I mostly do video shopping as it's a lot more lucrative. "Have kit will travel" as they say 😁 video is big in the US too..
 
Proverbs 14 v 15 said:
Please tell me more about the Smurfs, didn't hear anything about them apart from the silly songs of course
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I'm really surprised nobody remembers, it was such a huge scandal, the "Smurf heard 'round the world." Here's the story, some kid brought his stuffed Smurf to the Kingdom Hall, and it got up and walked out. The worst part about this, is JW's believe this garbage!

Some are complete total idiots. I had a brother tell me that "spiritual darkness" , means Satan and his demon's can't read the Bible or go into a Kingdom Hall. Which begs the question, "then how did Satan quote the Bible to Jesus?" Yes, I think Jehovah must have said to himself, "I'm going to have to send Nomex to Robert's site before he completely looses it!" Thank you Jehovah, it was just in time...well maybe...I guess we'll see...🤪
 
Speaking of idiots, I heard an elder say while conducting the book study, that Jesus didn't know who he was until he was baptized. So I guess Jesus mom, never told him about Gabriel, and when Jesus was left at Jerusalem when he was 12, he didn't really mean "why dud you have to look for me didn't you know I'd be in my Father's house."

Another time the book study conductor, a different, but equally moronic elder asked when man first landed on the moon. I answered "1969." I know/knew, that was also the year I was born. This elder says, "nope, anyone else?" Of course there wasn't anyone else, I'd already given the correct answer, so he pipes up and says, "It was 1970." He was the only one stupid enough to give the wrong answer. This same jerk gave me council on a talk I gave, and told me , "next time don't have your parents prepare your talk for you." I guess he couldn't conceive me as a teenager was already much smarter then he was. I prepared my own talk, and the only "help" I ever received was I read my talks to one of my parents, and they told me if it sucked or not. That was the extent of "help" any of us kids ever got. He gave me this "coucil" from the platform BTW, albeit, it was the second school.

Makes you wonder why some people don't have the good sense to shut up.
 
So one of the admins let my join the JW Letters FB group. I was originally denied because of my past FB activity. But I have been speaking privately with one of the mods, and he let me join today. For the most part, everyone has been very supportive. I was honest in the sense I admitted I wasn't officially JW. I may also have hinted that I may have different views on certain matters. But I explained mainly that I don't have much time for meetings with my railroad job. Again, most people appear to be very supportive. Some suggested starting a bible study. Others offer encouragement. Of course, you also have the occasional passive aggressive jabs like this one.

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It’s interesting how comments like this often seem to imply that if someone can’t make it to every meeting, it must mean Jehovah isn’t important enough to them. What I notice is that these remarks tend to emphasize organizational expectations rather than a personal relationship with Jehovah. Jesus encouraged us to build one another up and to meet together, but he never made attendance into a measuring stick for faithfulness.

I may be reading too much into her words, and I don’t want to be unfair to her personally. Still, the spirit of this problem seems to show up repeatedly. Many well-meaning comments focus more on the organization’s standards than on Jehovah himself. To me, that’s a bigger issue worth reflecting on.
 
Jahrule said:
So one of the admins let my join the JW Letters FB group. I was originally denied because of my past FB activity. But I have been speaking privately with one of the mods, and he let me join today. For the most part, everyone has been very supportive. I was honest in the sense I admitted I wasn't officially JW. I may also have hinted that I may have different views on certain matters. But I explained mainly that I don't have much time for meetings with my railroad job. Again, most people appear to be very supportive. Some suggested starting a bible study. Others offer encouragement. Of course, you also have the occasional passive aggressive jabs like this one.

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It’s interesting how comments like this often seem to imply that if someone can’t make it to every meeting, it must mean Jehovah isn’t important enough to them. What I notice is that these remarks tend to emphasize organizational expectations rather than a personal relationship with Jehovah. Jesus encouraged us to build one another up and to meet together, but he never made attendance into a measuring stick for faithfulness.

I may be reading too much into her words, and I don’t want to be unfair to her personally. Still, the spirit of this problem seems to show up repeatedly. Many well-meaning comments focus more on the organization’s standards than on Jehovah himself. To me, that’s a bigger issue worth reflecting on.
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This sense of implied dedication to Jehovah and thus ‘correctness’ is a facet of control that is fed down by the governing body (its common to most religions - think Catholic nuns in Ireland and the ruin they exerted over unmarried mothers). It is most easily explained in the term “safety in numbers” and forms the basis for all manner of abuses and bullying.

The basis of belief for them does not require truth, but a shared belief between the majority and because that shared belief is not anchored in fact in their hearts (how could it be?), adherence to it is critically important to the control and success of their group. The most dramatic example of late is of course the relaxation of beards amongst the JWs, simplistic though it may be.

The darker side though is a different story in that the same structure of imposed “unity” covered over the abuse of children right through to the 1914 fantasy. It principle is also the foundation of watchtower gas-lighting. It succeeds purely through the need for security in numbers amongst the members. Thus the success of disfellowshipping to keep contested teachings as “weakness” or “apostate”.

This woman, suggesting that non-attendance at meetings is the result of your assumed “weakness” in appreciation for Jehovah is simply a reflection of her own frailty of faith. She cannot allow others to have different priorities and still retain a ‘comfortable’ relationship with Jehovah in her own mind. Should this woman not check first to assure herself that watchtower is true to its stated cause? The benefit for her is that should you comply, she is comforted in her ego and submission to others to direct her path. Those that have no confidence in their own faith and decision making desperately need others to believe as they do. It is her problem, not yours. The truth sets one free of all that, as the scriptures point out.
 
Nomex said:
yep...the things you hear.

I had a brother tell me many years ago, that in Jacksonville Florida, at a District Convention, they played Queen's song, "Another One Bites the Dust" backwards from the platform. (I'm not even going to address the unlikelihood that the song was actually played from the platform, but you never know!) I have heard the song backwards, and sorry, I just don't get it, and I never have. Maybe it's the limitation of my understanding, but I just don't see the point of recording a message backwards, and I'm sorry, I am just not buying the "subliminal message", garbage. I have a hard enough time understanding what people are saying and talking about when they are speaking, the NORMAL and natural way. I'm just not buying and I never have nor will I ever in the future, that a message I don't understand is a message at all! I could listen to a song in a Foreign language a million times, but until someone teaches me, and more importantly, I put forth the effort to learn that language, I will NEVER understand it!!!!!!!!! But somehow we know and understand a message played backwards, but only subliminally? In other words your conscious mind doesn't understand it, but your subconscious does? Sorry, it doesn't pass the smell test! Not to mention that the claim it's saying something backwards is like seeing images in the clouds. "I guess it looks like a deer"
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Yeah I remember that, back in the 1980's sometime , but for us it was a circuit assembly held at a school ,when they played the Queen song - "another one bites the dust ", ( should of been played at each dissfellowshiping. ) anyway - I couldn't make out what it said backwards, but they told us it said -- "Decide to smoke Marijuana "
Around that same time there were crazy things being said about- Smurfs, Wind Chimes, Dream Catchers , Clothes from Goodwill, some bord games.
But some how the clinking glasses got by me - I didn't even know about that until it was just brought out recently, good thing I haven't clinked anybody. ( good grief ! )
Of course there is the usual - holidays, birthdays, women had to wear dresses, men had to wear suits & ties,
Now - Women can wear pants, Men don't need to wear ties, you can be clinking glasses, oh yeah - Now men can wear a beard , even though they took me off the ministry school for wearing one back in the late 1980s and 90's , I'm glad they finally figured out that the Scriptures always allowed for it.

What a bunch of crazy nonsense, how embarrassing for Jw's & the Watchtower to have this ridiculous straining out gnats like the Pharisees , blasted all over YouTube.

Makes one think that maybe the advice from the Queen song wasn't such a bad idea after all . 😏
Just kidding - don't get your Magic Underwear in a twist,- Oh yeah that's the Mormon Cult.
 
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