Research on Folks Who Left the Headquarters of the Jehovah’s Witnesses with Dr. Andre Jackson

Cult Conversations: The Influence Continuum with Dr. Steve Hassan

Dr. Steven Hassan

Self-improvement, Society & Culture, Education

4.8 • 684 Ratings

🗓️ 20 January 2025

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Former cult members often reference the moment when they finally realized they were in a cult. In 2023 the Watchtower Society reported approximately 8.6 million members. Like many cults, Jehovah's Witnesses discourage critical thinking and members' exposure to any information that could be critical of the belief system. Such insolation from the real world is one way to keep people brainwashed. For Andre Jackson, who grew up as a Jehovah's Witness, this moment of "waking up" became the focus of his Doctoral dissertation. Andre grew up in Germany, where his mother became a Jehovah's Witness when he was 7 years old. By the age of 10, Andre accepted the teachings of Jehovah’s Witnesses: When he almost needed a blood transfusion (which the group teaches to be a transgression against God), he rejected it and was willing to die for his belief. Andre focused his dissertation research on the waking up process of Bethelites, Jehovah’s Witnesses who live and work in the Bethel compounds. Around 0.25% of Jehovah's Witnesses, around 22,000 individuals, are Bethelites. So how do people "wake up"? Come join us in this fascinating discussion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Dr. Stephen Hassan with another episode of The Influence Continuum.
0:10.4	And on the Influence Continuum, we've done a number of shows on the Jehovah's Witnesses, also
0:17.4	known as Watchtower Society. They're a group that has millions of members worldwide.
0:24.6	They are apocalyptic.
0:26.6	They tell their people that Armageddon is coming at any moment.
0:30.6	Very controversial for their pedophilia cover-ups and blood transfusion stuff.
0:37.6	We're going to get into a lot of very interesting things today.
0:42.0	My guest is a newly minted PhD doctor, Andre Jackson,
0:49.1	who I am proud to say did his dissertation work on waking up. In fact, the title of his dissertation is
1:00.2	waking up a narrative inquiry into deconversion stories by former Jehovah's Witnesses,
1:07.3	Bethelites. Bethel is the headquarters.
1:11.7	So it was very interesting.
1:14.2	And I was honored to be asked by Andre to be on his dissertation committee
1:19.1	as he was explaining brainwashing and mind control
1:24.5	and wanting to analyze what causes people who are in this group at the
1:31.1	headquarters level to wake up. But before we get into it, Andre, I want to give my listeners
1:37.9	more backstory on you, if you don't mind. So you grew up as a witness in Germany. Your mom became a J.W. in
1:48.4	1987 when you were seven years old. Your stepfather was not a J.W. while growing up. So your
1:56.1	childhood was not as isolated as that of other J.W. children. Therefore, you were allowed to play sports,
2:03.5	pursue hobbies, have non-JW friends, and go to college. So you are lucky. That's your stepfather.
2:11.2	And the thing about the JWs is that men are the head of the household. So this was another
2:16.7	factor working in your favor.
	...

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