Jehovah’s Witnesses’ stance on dreams and dream interpretation is wildly inconsistent. On the one hand, they laud the prophetic data conveyed via dreams to Jacob, Joseph, Nebuchadnezzar, Peter, etc. All of those examples of precognition are acceptable. However, if a rank and file contemporary Witness were to freely share their prophetic dreams with the congregation - they should expect congregation elders to intervene to quash such dabbling with divination.
That is hardly surprising since unsubstantiated doctrinal leaps and/or 180 degree changes in doctrine are endemic to the Witnesses. The modern day religion bears little resemblance to Charles Taze Russell's group of independent (albeit racist and sexist) Bible Students. Today, mores vary wildly among contemporary Witnesses depending on the ethnic composition or geographic location of their congregation and the whimsy and proclivities of the body of elders exercising control over their little fiefdoms.
I am long past giving a f&%k about what pleases or displeases any body of elders, their corporate Governing Body overseers, or the horses they rode in on. And I am about as concerned about the date of the Witness Communionesque Memorial as I am about when the moon is in retrograde. These days, if anyone calls me a weaker vessel, I will clap back against the stupidity of the misogyny that is interwoven throughout organized religion in general and Jehovah’s Witness ideology specifically.
So please explain to me why quite often when I lay me down to sleep, my dreams revert to the JW experiences from my first 30 years of life? I cannot recall how many times I awaken after dreaming of a frantic search for the correct Watchtower before the Sunday Watchtower study, or a dream about one of many panic attacks that I would have when a homeowner opened the door-livid about my uninvited proselytizing visits. The long days of district conventions also appear in my dreams frequently: the rite of passage flirtations with other adolescents Witnesses, eager to connect during the convening; dreams about the frenetic planning to get included in the after-session social activities with other young people, and dreams about the mind-numbing endlessness of the program especially those terrible discourses where the speaker would read a manuscript word for word to ensure that no one was distracted by a local man’s charisma.
Is this a symptom of my middle-aged insomnia, or is it the fate of all who leave high control religions? Do all former fundamentalists still dream about their religious experiences long after their belief system changes? How exactly does faith deconstruction of one’s subconscious work?
Inquiring minds need to know.
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