Waking up from Religious Indoctrination is frightening and lonely. The scariest part is the person’s usual support system, the one they turn to during a crisis, are all indoctrinated by the very poison they are trying to release.
The people they used to trust cannot hear beyond their own dogma. They cannot truly hold space for a person’s experience, and instead, out of their own fear they try to keep the person in the religion. Instead of supporting, they make them feel crazy, or like the ‘devil’ has gotten hold of them. This leaves the awakening person in a very conflicting and isolated place.
There are so many psychological dysfunctions embedded in Abrahamic Religions. However, the most damaging is the belief that the members of ‘said Religion’ are ‘chosen’ and better than the rest of humanity. Everybody else, except them, has got it wrong.
Members of these Religions will mostly tolerate other beliefs but deep down, they believe the only way to heaven is adherence to their ‘single story scripture’. Everybody else is going to hell.
So, when a member of these religions starts to wake up and begin to question, the experience is incredibly scary. This is because these religious scriptures tell their members that any exploration or opinion that differs from their ‘Single Book’ is evil. And, not only that, one will go to hell if one does not believe exactly as their scripture says.
Due to this twisted spiritual programming, the person cannot freely explore the vastness of themselves and consciousness because their religion has implanted a hellish fear mechanism into their psyche. Some may have even left the religion but their unconscious is still haunted by this programming.
This is a form of mind control and spiritual abuse. The consequences are what psychologists term as Religious Trauma Syndrome, and the process of coming out of fundamentalist religion requires a deep level of bravery.
If you identify with this, keep going. It is safe to explore. God loves your curiosity and is beyond words or a single book. You are not crazy, no matter what they say.
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Artwork ‘Countercurrent’ by Miles Johnston.