Awakening of a Jehovah's Witness: Escape from the Watchtower Society (Hardcover)

by Diane Wilson (Author) "I'm going to kill you!..." (more)
Key Phrases: zigzagging doctrines, disagreements with the society, circuit overseer, Watchtower Society, Kingdom Hall, Governing Body (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
"The public needs to be warned," says ex-Jehovah's Witness Diane Wilson about the religion she once embraced. In Awakening of a Jehovah's Witness: Escape from the Watchtower Society, Wilson recounts her quarter-century in the movement, making the usual case that the Society is a cult, that it exercises unhealthy control over the minds and behavior of its members and that it grooms followers to become victims. Certainly, her story is sad, particularly the part about being encouraged to shun her own daughter for several months, but it is hardly a balanced or even very perceptive book. (One of the most interesting elements of the narrative is that Wilson seems to have transferred the near-divine authority that she once vested in her church to her therapist, whose words are sometimes reprinted here in boldface.) Sadly, few objective accounts exist about the Jehovah's Witnesses; little stands in the middle between polemic and apologetic. Readers are left with classic studies such as M. James Penton's Apocalypse Delayed, a rare book that seeks not just to discredit and refute the Watchtower, but to understand it.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review
"...well developed and entirely persuasive..." -- BookLoons.com

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 327 pages
• Publisher: Prometheus Books (April 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1573929425
• ISBN-13: 978-1573929424
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #210,329 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heart and mind, February 25, 2002

By	Charles E. Ryba "JBicheno" (Albuquerque, NM United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

A clear demonstration of the emotions that come into play when discussing religious experience. I liked the mix of factual topics like JW doctrinal changes with the personal conflicts that many probably experience but are told how evil that is to think about and feel when seeing injustice or untruth.

The Watchtower put the organized into "organized religion", this shows how the higher goals of organizations (including other churches as well) supercede the individual need. Don't suspend your higher mental functions when accepting "truth".

This book is much better reading than the confrontational and expose style anti-JW, protestant Christian books. Thinking with mind and heart is much more productive, as is this book.

For those among the Watchtower camp, the material conforms well with many other sources that I've encountered over 30 years about Watchtower practice and teaching. It isn't out to get you, just to make you stop pretending not to notice commonplace occurrences among Jehovah's Witnesses. A good complement to the Ray Franz book "Crisis of Conscience".

36 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read it first, then judge, February 23, 2002

By A Customer

This book is one persons story, not an objective but a subjective account about life in the Jehovah's Witnesses. Books such as M. James Penton's excellent and highly recommended work Apocalypse Delayed are a scholar's account of the Watchtower based on library research. To fully understand a movement (any movement), reading individual life stories such as Diane Wilson's are critical. Having read many accounts such as Ms. Wilson's, it is obvious to me that her story (and those of many others) should be taken very seriously. Only one who has lived as part of the Watchtower Society as a baptized member can fully understand what is it like to be a committed member (or trapped because a spouse is a member, and one knows that all too often leaving means loss of family as happened to Diane). Ms. Wilson's account will give the reader a feel for what it is like to be a Witness (and Witnesses will find themselves saying over and over "that is just how I felt!" or "that is what happened to me!"). A trend exists in academia that concludes one should not say unkind things about other religions. This rule may be fine in mixed company, but it will not really help us to understand this or any other movement. Also, few people wish to apply this rule to some groups such as the Taliban now, although certainly scholarly studies and individual life storied are both necessary to understand both the Taliban and the Watchtower (both have more in common than it first appears). To be a Witness, one usually must be either in or out, or, as they say, in the truth or of the world (Satan's world, that is). Outsiders seem to have a hard time accepting the reality of what it is like being in the Watchtower Society. Read this book (the whole book, and also check the many references) and find out why. Even a veteran Watchtower watcher can learn much from this well documented story.

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What it's like to be a JW - this book will explain it, September 15, 2003

By A Customer

I was a JW for nearly 25 years myself. I just finished reading this book and all I can say is that it is 100% accurate in what it says. If you have never been a JW, you will think that the author is making this stuff up because it sounds so rediculous. Looking back on my 25 years as a JW, I feel stupid and used, as I'm sure the author did as well.

Unfortunately, the author allows her emotions, and especially her anger, to come through virtually every page. The reader might get the impression that this is simply a book of revenge to get back at the Watchtower Society. Although I won't speculate what the author's motive was for writing the book, I can tell you it is genuine and accurately represents the day-to-day nonsense and mind control that goes on inside Kingdom Halls.

It took me nearly 6 years to break free myself, but the cord is broken.

Another great book I would recommend is Raymond Franz's "Crisis of Conscience" - which gives you an inside look at the Governing Body of Jehovah's witnesses.

Thank you, Ms. Wilson for writing this book. I can relate to nearly everything you wrote.