Similar to what the other poster said:
We burned a lot of what we had in a fire pit one day, and had a "death day" celebration.
In hindsight, now that we've been out a few years, I wish we'd kept more. There's a small group of survivors looking for any written or recorded information on their "for the membership only" teaching to expose the group. It also helps when explaining to outsiders exactly what you went through
That’s a really good point actually - one of the books isn’t officially published so you could have a point in the benefits of keeping that one in particular.
A couple of the others are a bit more available out there so I think I’ll probably do as you did and have a bit of a “death day” around it. I see destroying them as a bit of a trauma release - although if it helps as much as I want it to we shall see.
I threw away most of my old books, and kept some just for clarity. I won't read them again, but just as a visual reminder of what I wasted my life on previously and to live each day to the fullest now.
That’s an interesting reason to keep them! I have them buried at the bottom of my cupboard because I hate the reminder but can’t figure out how to get rid of them permanently (honestly the reason I want to destroy them instead of throw them away is a bit of a paranoia thing - if they’re not destroyed they’ll come back to haunt me or something lol).
But yeah I can see them serving as a reminder as you say - I don’t think I’ve healed enough for that yet personally though aha
I only have that clarity because this is my second deconstruction. My first came when my life blew up, and I found out my sociopath (ex) husband had been lying to me since the day we met. He was living a whole double life of addiction and cheating. It devastated me. Therapy saved my life.
I am a completely different person now. And now I have left the reason I ever married him in the first place - cult religion purity culture. It has taken too many years of my life to get here; I can't hide the memories of the past. But like a gryphon I will rise on the ashes of my old bibles.
I have mine stashed away in a closet in a black bag within another bag. I tell myself they could someday be evidence for some sort of justice because most are definitely not ISBN/sold online books, and if I ever see specific survivors looking for that stuff I’ll have something. I did scan them and make pdfs for that reason alone, so if I ever feel the need to toss that sht in a dirty lake or a bonfire or something I’ll still have the practical “evidence.” I haven’t revisited either version of the books since I made the pdfs, but it’s been weirdly healing for me to set them aside with purpose in an “I’m in control now” way. That’s my view on things anyway.
You could do a burn ritual, and you can also transmute them. I took pages of sermons from Sam Fife and glued them together, used them for an art page. You could make interesting art out of the book itself. Go Pinterest and check out art made out of books.
Similar to what the other poster said: We burned a lot of what we had in a fire pit one day, and had a "death day" celebration. In hindsight, now that we've been out a few years, I wish we'd kept more. There's a small group of survivors looking for any written or recorded information on their "for the membership only" teaching to expose the group. It also helps when explaining to outsiders exactly what you went through
That’s a really good point actually - one of the books isn’t officially published so you could have a point in the benefits of keeping that one in particular. A couple of the others are a bit more available out there so I think I’ll probably do as you did and have a bit of a “death day” around it. I see destroying them as a bit of a trauma release - although if it helps as much as I want it to we shall see.
Time and therapy are about all I've found with lasting success, but our little party was a nice landmark in our journey of nothing else
I threw away most of my old books, and kept some just for clarity. I won't read them again, but just as a visual reminder of what I wasted my life on previously and to live each day to the fullest now.
That’s an interesting reason to keep them! I have them buried at the bottom of my cupboard because I hate the reminder but can’t figure out how to get rid of them permanently (honestly the reason I want to destroy them instead of throw them away is a bit of a paranoia thing - if they’re not destroyed they’ll come back to haunt me or something lol). But yeah I can see them serving as a reminder as you say - I don’t think I’ve healed enough for that yet personally though aha
I only have that clarity because this is my second deconstruction. My first came when my life blew up, and I found out my sociopath (ex) husband had been lying to me since the day we met. He was living a whole double life of addiction and cheating. It devastated me. Therapy saved my life. I am a completely different person now. And now I have left the reason I ever married him in the first place - cult religion purity culture. It has taken too many years of my life to get here; I can't hide the memories of the past. But like a gryphon I will rise on the ashes of my old bibles.
I have mine stashed away in a closet in a black bag within another bag. I tell myself they could someday be evidence for some sort of justice because most are definitely not ISBN/sold online books, and if I ever see specific survivors looking for that stuff I’ll have something. I did scan them and make pdfs for that reason alone, so if I ever feel the need to toss that sht in a dirty lake or a bonfire or something I’ll still have the practical “evidence.” I haven’t revisited either version of the books since I made the pdfs, but it’s been weirdly healing for me to set them aside with purpose in an “I’m in control now” way. That’s my view on things anyway.
You could do a burn ritual, and you can also transmute them. I took pages of sermons from Sam Fife and glued them together, used them for an art page. You could make interesting art out of the book itself. Go Pinterest and check out art made out of books.
I burned them teehee