Ep 722 – Religious Recovery with ex-Jehovah’s Witness Dr. Ryan Lee

Infants on Thrones

Personal Journals, Society & Culture, Philosophy

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 19 April 2021

⏱️ 76 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today I sit down with Dr. Ryan Lee to discuss religious recovery for former members of high control religious groups such as Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormonism, among others.
While the doctrines of high control religions (often referred to as “cults”) may vary, the underlying dynamics of these groups are often very similar. They usually demand absolute obedience, exerting high levels of control over the thoughts and actions of their members, penalizing doubt or independent thought, and often employ harsh excommunication tactics towards those who decide to leave.
As a former Jehovah’s Witness, Dr. Lee has first-hand experience of the impact these organizations can have on one’s well-being, and the challenges of those who are courageous enough to walk away. In addition to grieving the loss of community and family, former members face questions related to purpose and reintegration with the outside, and are often flooded with feelings of anger, sadness, regret and confusion.

Contact Dr. Ryan Lee at his website here.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	So my name is Dr. Ryan Lee. I am a psychotherapist. I specialize in working with
0:06.3	former members of high-control religions. I primarily work with ex-show's
0:10.6	witnesses. They are very big on separating you from the world in the most
0:14.8	extreme sense. People are leaving high-control religions in all forms and I've
0:21.4	seen more and more of the people are really creating outlets like the show
0:25.6	that you have as a way of connecting with other people and I know that there
0:30.8	really aren't too many therapists that specialize in this area like I do. So when
0:38.0	trauma is really as a hold on you whether consciously or unconsciously it plays a
0:42.8	role in and shapes every experience you have. Our ways of thinking and feeling
0:48.9	are a result of deeply embedded pathways and it's hard to change those
0:55.0	pathways because once a pathway is deep it becomes easier to just go along the
1:00.0	set path that you have carved out in one way or another. It's possible to have
1:05.6	the feeling of anger express it and not get stuck in. It's important you know we
1:12.9	naturally avoid thinking about things that trouble us but in avoiding those we
1:17.5	don't solve them they just stay there you know so Ayahuasca has this way for a
1:21.6	lot of people of myself included of like taking you by the hand and go look at
1:25.8	this you need to look at this you know and that may be problems with your
1:30.6	relationships or traumas that you've been holding on to pain of people ways people
1:36.3	have hurt you that you haven't been able to let go and then through that
1:39.6	process of connecting with it generally speaking when all goes well it culminates
1:44.7	in a purge. I don't say that with bitterness or maliciousness I don't think
1:50.0	they're bad people generally speaking they mean well they're well
	...

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