shunned

This episode is being released today, November 16, in honor of Cassie's brother Brandon. One of the things that Jehovah's Witnesses do poorly is supporting and looking out for the mental and emotional well-being of their members. Cassie experienced multiple changes in her life where she needed to be seen and helped within the congregation in a real way and they never managed to connect to her unti...

Today we're going to meet Matthew from Australia. For a lot of Jehovah's Witnesses they find themselves just riding the wave, doing what they have to do to get by. They may not ever really "reach out" for more and more "privileges" in the congregation but just seek to make it through from one day to the next. Matthew was one such JW, trying to get by, trying to make his very serious JW mom happy a...

You can tell in this conversation that Daniel is a really humble and sincere guy. This conversation deal with the way Jehovah's Witnesses make natural things seem unnatural, how bipolar disorder can impact a person inside the organization, and he has some great insights at the end regarding things that have helped him since leaving. There's also a very strong reaction from me regarding a story he...

This episode really touches on so many different pitfalls of life as one of Jehovah's Witnesses as seen through the life of one person. We talk about the blood issue, abuse, the realities of the politics inside congregations, mental health issues, the pressures put on young couples, and Yahoo Answers. Yeah, I didn't see that last one coming either. Joseph is a person that pays attention to detail...

Today we're going to meet Renee. This is a story of profound loneliness played out over decades, surviving an abusive home and life in a cult, and coming out the other side a profoundly compassionate and beautiful person. Renee is an activist in the ex-JW community today and some know her as Renee Cordeschi – JW Survivor. The song that Renee chose to represent her journey is  No Second Prize by Ji...

Today we're going to meet Corrie. Her son Nico was featured back in April on episode 29. Now we get to hear her story and she does a really good job of putting it all together and was fun to talk to. She became one of Jehovah's Witnesses in her early 30s after a guy that was doing some tree work at her house pitched her and introduced her to his wife for a Bible study. Having recently lost her gra...

Nicole was raised as one of Jehovah's Witnesses. This is a tough story to listen to and my heart goes out to her but she has overcome a truly traumatic childhood to create a good life for herself. Unlike most people that I interview she was never baptized, but she lived a life as a JW that needs to be told. There are a lot of patterns in this story that are repeated in many families in the organiz...

Adrian was raised one of Jehovah's Witnesses, born into the cult. His father even believed himself to be one of the 144,000 chosen to go to heaven. You'll see through this interview that Adrian was one of those people that had humanity that even the cult couldn't break. That sensitivity though, the heartbreak of shunning not just once but twice, led to his becoming a heroin addict at a young age....

Linda was a devout Jehovah's Witness, one that believed it all and really put her heart and soul into it. Today she's been out of the organization for 25 years and our discussion involves Buddhist teachings, the neuroscience of shunning, and her story which she also shares in her memoir that is entitled Shunned: How I lost my religion and found myself. So you're going to see how she both lost that...

Today we are talking with Andie, formerly one of Jehovah's Witnesses. This story really involves so many things. First, we're talking about a family that goes all the way back to the Rutherford days of the organization. Additionally, Andie was beat up for her beliefs, she was forced to move a lot for a reason that you won't see coming, and she spent time in Mexico to try to build an English speaki...

In this episode we're going to meet Lyla Illing from South Africa, now living in New York City. She was involved in a cult early in her life that, translated from Afrikaans to English, means "The Chosen People". As one might imagine in a land where apartheid held strong for so long the cult was definitely racist. Lyla was only involved for a short time and you'll see why, but it created dynamics t...

Naomi was raised in one of those JW families that didn't have a tv and that limited books because they were reflective of Satan's world. Their lives, even their limited traveling, revolved around the Kingdom work. You're going to see how even in such a controlled environment a child still has their own mind and thoughts, and how that plays out. It was really interesting what woke Naomi up, and you...

James was a member of the Old Order Swiss Amish but James is gay and that obviously caused a lot of difficulty for him. Just this week he had his story shared in The New York Times. He's taken his life from a place that is closed off and drab and he's built a life of openness and color. The song that James chose to represent his journey is  Here by the Pet Shop Boys . Resources Mentioned: Punatic...

Today we have a story that's different than the norm. We're going to get to know Dave Warnock, former pastor and member of a charismatic evangelical Pentecostal church who is shunned by his children. But the story is bigger than that. Dave has been diagnosed in the last few months with ALS, sometimes commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, and he knows that he only has a finite time left in his li...

Chloe's family was in the circuit work as Jehovah's Witnesses, but her family also had a lot of pressure in the house, pressure that she'll describe in a way that will put you right there, pressure that perhaps you felt in your home if you too had a particularly volatile parent. Chloe, like so many, lived a double life and ended up getting married young to another JW. Today she shares custody of h...

Today we have Nico's story. Nico has actually already been on the podcast, at the end of episode 23 after Sherrie's interview. He told the story of his first Christmas in the Facebook group and it was such an amazing story that I had him call in and record it and played it on the show. Nico is one of the youngest guests that I've had. He was able to break free from the cult with so much life ahead...

I really had to think about how to describe this episode. A word kept popping out at me and that's "tough". Yolanda faced verbal, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse inside the cult of Jehovah's Witnesses, but she comes through with this tough and resilient spirit. Yolanda isn't officially shunned and we've done things to protect her identity. She has become a haven for some shunned people in he...

Georgia grew up in what Jehovah's Witnesses often refer to as a "divided household". Her mother was a faithful JW, her father violently opposed. In this episode you'll see how that opposition actually played into the hands of the Witnesses. You'll see how someone from an abusive situation ended up in another abusive situation after being raped. Georgia faces PTSD after a life of abuse, secret Bibl...

Nicholas was a member of an online ministry that seems to have some hallmarks of a cult called Is, Was, and Will Be. This is a really unique look into how what seems to be a cult can get its hooks in someone that is never even present physically. Imagine getting sucked into an online world where your fellowship is primarily through email chats and a website with information on it. There must be so...

PIMO – \pee-moe\  noun  – short for Physically In, Mentally Out, a person held captive to the cult of Jehovah's Witnesses because although they are awake, to let others know would cost them everything they've ever known. They stay in physically to keep spouses, family, friends, the only social structure that they've ever been allowed to have. Sometimes they do this while plotting a "fade" where th...

Homeless at just 13 years of age, married at 16, raised by extended family that claimed him as their own to create the young Jehovah's Witness that they wanted, Silvers led a life that encompassed the whole toxic palette of cult life. His life was touched by abuse of every kind and he's been as low as a human can get mentally and emotionally, but yet here he stands. Today he tells his story to the...

Today we have a really cool live recording from my living room. A listener to the show from Australia named Sherrie came to the Unites States with her Auntie Bev and they took time out of their trip to come visit my wife and I. Sherrie is pretty freshly openly out of the Witnesses, and Beverley was never one of Jehovah's Witnesses despite her close ties to her family and hopes that one day she cou...

This episode is the audio from my latest VIDcast that I do on my Youtube channel called shunnedpodcast.  In it I outline where this podcast is headed, what I plan on introducing to it, dreams I have for even bigger things, as well as new things that I'm working on currently or have recently achieved.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UHGzT8J9M4&t=309s

This episode features a fascinating interview with someone that was raised in a racist family cult. It was very small, just 14 people or so in actuality, but the teachings of the leader were found online and attracted a lot of alt-right and neo-nazi supporters that were drawn to it. This is a look into the literal life cycle of a cult. It shows how it began, how it eventually came to an end, but h...

Narcissism is a trait that is both attracted to the cult of Jehovah's Witnesses as well as a byproduct of their culture. One begins to see others as objects to be controlled, and often becomes tone deaf to the feelings of others around them. Tamara's story is one that highlights these qualities in those around her. You will learn of her extremely isolated JW upbringing, you'll see once again that...