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Tartarean Paradise:

Religious Trauma in Childhood

As fundamentalism saturates the globe, research into the processes in which developing minds become paralyzed by dogmatic

beliefs is crucial. This is just a small piece in the ever-growing body of work on this subject, but there is so much more needed. This particular piece is a journey into the lives of fifteen individuals, including the author, raised within the Jehovah's Witnesses. Written as a senior thesis for a Bachelor of Arts degree, the author took a survey of fourteen random others from within the ex-Jehovah's Witness web community with educated curiosity of what their experiences might have been. The main intent of the piece is to expose the practices and teachings of the sect--which hides behind a misleadingly soft persona--and the often devastating effects these have on the developing minds of young children. The piece has a focus on adolescent girls, although men raised in the sect were also surveyed. It has been called important research by Leslie Williams, former executive director of the Vermont chapter of the ACLU, who, at one point guided the author into personalizing the piece for non-academic publishing. It is especially suggested reading for teachers with Witness children in their classroom, counselors with Witness or

ex-Witness patients, and anyone who has lived it or has a loved one in or becoming involved in the sect.

Please feel free to peruse the document as you wish, relevant to the topics that draw your interest. The preface and introduction lay the relevance of the topic in today's world. Much of the focus on the beginning chapters is on the development of young women, as adolescent girls, and the problems they confront in status-quo America compared to the added dimension of being raised within the Jehovah's Witnesses. The chapter Body, Soul, and Image looks at the pressures of what "normal" girls goes through in getting in touch with their sense of body consciousness and awareness and includes an expanded personal account of the author's escape to New York in the eighth grade and its consequences. There is an explanation of the surveys and the basics of cults and how they begin. Finally, the later chapters get into the meat of the study; the lives and experiences of the people who answered the surveys.

For those of you who gave me your stories and permission to use them, I am eternally grateful. Your experiences helped validate mine and furthered my healing. Some wrote exhaustive memoirs and much of the emotional experience didn't reach the finished draft. This is for all of you, although much further down the road than expected.

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