PODCAST · religion
Welcome to the World
by Ryan Lee
This podcast is dedicated to all things related to the process of waking up, walking out and moving on from life in a Christian cult or high control religion.Its host, Dr Ryan Lee, is a former Jehovah's Witness with a doctorate in clinical psychology and a practicing therapist, specializing in helping former JWs and other cult survivors move through the recovery and rebuilding processDr Lee covers a range of topics relating to coming to terms and healing from religious trauma and rebuilding a life after leaving a cult
Episodes
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#47 No Victims Here
Another straight up banger of a guest! (no hype) Michaela is not only charismatic and deeply fascinating, but after hearing the 9 levels of hell she crawled through to break free, you'll be left with the same question I had: How the hell did she turn out so great?! We're gonna try to suss out the...
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#46 Burning Bridges & Building Boundaries
After working with over a thousand ex-cult members, I thought I'd heard it all. I was wrong... On today's episode, it is my great pleasure to introduce you to "Manon"—a ferocious, badass mother (literally & figuratively) and the owner of the best cult-quitting story I've ever heard. We also go…
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#45 What if they were right?
If you're reading this, chances are you're already fairly certain that the cult you escaped from was a flaming pile of fecal matter. Well... fairly certain Because knowing the failed prophecies, the abuse scandals, and the sheer absurdity of the story they're selling still doesn't quite squash…
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#44 Socializing Without a Script
In this episode, I explore the strange social vertigo that can follow life in a high-control group, why authentic connection often feels riskier than performance, and how we can shift from to less theater, more improv. Along the way, I share a few stories from my own attempts to navigate life...
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#43 From Certainty to Discernment
Another underdeveloped muscle in former cult members: Discernment The cult taught us that every thought and action falls into a neat little black and white category of right and wrong, regardless of the situation. And what a shock... turns out that's not actually the way the world works, and it…
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#42 You are NOT normal
We start by confirming what you already suspect: If you were raised in a cult or high control religion, you are most certainly not normal, and will most likely never achieve the status of such. We follow up with all the reasons "normal" is a shit thing to aim for, and why the road less traveled…
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#41 BOOM! Ghosted!
A whole episode devoted to the feeling of being ghosted (transitive style) and how to sort through that grief
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#40 The Virtue of Selfishness
One of the worst things you could be in a cult is selfish. Pursue a career? Selfish. Go to college? Selfish. Skip a meeting because you're too exhausted to feign interest? Selfish. When you're handed the grandiose mission of saving the human race from Armageddon, even a tiny spark of personal joy...
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Musical Rant: 150 ways to beat depression in 5 minutes
Don't come back until you've tried em all
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#39 Digging out of Depression
From time to time we all get sucked into the sunken place of depression, and some of us sink deeper than others. Until recent year, I'd been in and out of the clinical depression hole most of my life. Today, I walk you through the fool proof blueprint I mapped out myself to climb out of that hole...
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Elder Update: Dating Edition
More spiritual food to choke on... at the proper time
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#38 Crash Course in Dating for Cult Survivors
Today we're going to take the first of many stabs at the wonderfully awkward world of post-cult dating. Essentially, the challenge of learning things most people learned in high school at the age of 35. Here's the thing, you can't skip the mess. The mess builds the muscles. But we've put together...
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Elder Update: Beards, Broads and Bullshit
Proper bullshit at the proper time
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Musical Rant: Narcissistic Tango
A playful breakdown of the narcissistic deflection cascade
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#37 Narcissism and Cults
Prior to my work with ex-JWs, I would generally encounter clients with parents on the narcissistic spectrum maybe around 20% of the time. Once I started working with ex-JWs, that number went up to about 80%. This is no cute coincidence. There's a pattern here, and we spend this entire episode...
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#36 Personal Lessons (Broadly Applicable) From The Ex-JW Ayahuasca Retreat
Fresh off the tail of our very first ex-JW ayahuasca retreat, I'm thrilled to report that it surpassed all expectations. Today we're going to give you a breakdown of all the joy, surprises, and personal lessons learned in the process. Through the retelling, we'll be touching on themes of...
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#35 How Do You Like Your Pain? Dirty or Neat?
Today, we're talking about pain; more specifically Clean Pain vs. Dirty Pain: Clean pain is the sharp but necessary pain of ripping off the Band-Aid. It heals you. Dirty pain is the slow, grinding misery of avoidance. It traps you. Ex-JWs know all about dirty pain—it's what keeps people stuck in...
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Musical Rant: Ayahuasca/Constipation Metaphor
What the build up to an ayahuasca purge can feel like
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#34 All About Ayahuasca
Hey guys, Sorry for the fake out, but for reasons I explain in this episode we decided to skip the episode on my worst psychedelic experience (for now) and instead focus an entire episode on ayahuasca. We focus on the benefits of ayahuasca, some explanation around what an experience is like, and…
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Musical Rant: My first LSD trip
For all the Star Wars fans out there
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#33 My First Psychedelic Experience
This episode marks the first in a three part series in honor of our upcoming Ex-JW Ayahuasca retreat in March (DrRyanLee.com/retreat for more info). In today's episode we talk a little about the upcoming retreat, some best practices for working with psychedelics, and then we take you on a little...
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#32 Ten Keys for Upping Our Social Game
Building off of last week's show, we cover 10 key areas that help us in our pursuit of making new friends
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#31 Rebuilding Your Community
In part 1 of this two part episode we tackle everything related to the experience of losing our JW community and rebuilding our social circle from scratch, including how to navigate trust issues and rewriting some of our core beliefs around human connection
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#30 The Challenges of the Empath
This episode is for all you superheroes our there blessed/cursed with the power of empathy. We cover the origin story of the empath, the kryptonite of social gatherings, and how to harness this power through energy management
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#29 Ease on Down the Road
An analogy to help us conceptualize the work of deoprogramming
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Musical Rant: Warmer Thoughts of Death
More comforting ideas gleamed from ego death experiences
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#28 Death... is harmless
On our very first Halloween episode, we take a cold, hard, chilling look at the spooky topic of death, and explore the possibility that death isn't necessarily the big scary monster we thought it was. We start by sitting for a bit with the uncomfortable actuality of our imminent demise, followed…
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#27 Take Control of Your Narrative
Narrative, perspective, point of view, opinion, belief, story... all of these word and phrases point to the same thing: That our experience of the world is subjective, and shaped by the stories we hold about the world and our relationship to it. I'm sure you're all too aware of the way the JW…
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#26 My Take on Meditation
This episode is the first in a series of "mini" episodes entitled STRONGER. Sometimes we get so mired down in all the heaviness around leaving the org, that we lose sight of why we left in the first place; which is to grow, explore, and experience life to the fullest. The STRONGER series will be...
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#25 (Part 2) The Problem With People Pleasing
Last week we came down pretty hard on all you "nice" guys and gals out there. This week, as promised, we bring some practical steps towards breaking this nasty habit, including mindfulness, saying yes to "no", saying no to "sorry", and the difference between "being nice" and kindness.
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Musical Rant: Overgiving into Oblivion
The death spiral caused by people pleasing in relationships
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#24 The Problem With People Pleasing
Of all the common challenges faced by ex-JWs, people pleasing is at the number one spot for most universal. We can't help ourselves. We have been wired in every way imaginable towards having this disposition. And lets be honest... it sucks It's corrosive to our sense of well being, to our...
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#23 What it means to "do the work" (and how to make it easy)
As ex-JWs, we have our work cut out for us in terms of healing. From leaving the org, to connecting with our true self, redefining our spiritual beliefs, rebuilding our community... the list goes on. All of this is even more challenging in light of the fact that we haven't really been taught how…
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#22 What to Expect When You're Defecting: How to break the news that you're leaving
So you've finally reached the end of your rope. Despite all your best efforts to maintain the status quo and fly under the radar, you've reached a point where you just can't do it anymore. The pain and discomfort of hiding your true feelings has finally grown larger than your fear of leaving the...
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#21 Why Therapy is Awesome!
There was a time in my life when I rolled my eyes at the idea of therapy. It seemed ridiculous that simply talking with someone could ever lead to any kind of real change or improvement to my life experience. I'm delighted to report that I was very, very wrong about that assessment. Today's…
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#20 (Part 2) Boundaries: What F@#% is that?!
Following up on the very positive response we received from part 1, in this episode we elaborate on these ideas around setting boundaries, and cover: Knowing when to set boundaries Different ways of speaking our boundaries and helpful phrases to use How to handle it when setting boundaries…
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#19 (Part 1) Boundaries: What F@#% is that?!
To most ex-JWs, especially those newly out, the idea of boundaries is a foreign concept. Because, for the most part, boundaries don't exist within the organization. The idea of saying "no" "that doesn't feel good" or "please don't do that" are not really in our vocabulary, and we've been…
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#18 (Part2) Navigating life with a PIMI spouse and children
Waking up from the org can be a lonely adventure, and even more so when those in your immediate family are determined to stay asleep In response to fan requests, today's episode will be devoted to discussing how to navigate this dynamic, and some questions to consider which will help determine…
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#17 (Part 1) Navigating life with a PIMI spouse and children
Waking up from the org can be a lonely adventure, and even more so when those in your immediate family are determined to stay asleep In response to fan requests, today's episode will be devoted to discussing how to navigate this dynamic, and some questions to consider which will help determine…
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#16 (Part 2): Imagining what a loving god might actually look like
How many times have we heard that "God is love"? In this episode we challenge that idea. In part 1, we spend some time breaking down challenging that claim based on what we know about god from the bible. In part 2, we will spend some time thinking about what a loving god might actually look like...
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#15 (Part 1): Imagining what a loving god might actually look like
How many times have we heard that "God is love"? In this episode we challenge that idea. In part 1, we spend some time breaking down challenging that claim based on what we know about god from the bible. In part 2, we will spend some time thinking about what a loving god might actually look like...
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#14 (Part 2): Changing how we talk to ourselves (How to do it)
(This is part 2 of this episode) Most of us carry some version of the harsh inner critic. And why wouldn't we? All we have been told by the org is that we have been born bad, we can never do enough and that kindness from god is "undeserved". This abusive voice tends to dominate, interfering with...
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#13 (Part 1): Changing how we talk to ourselves
Most of us carry some version of the harsh inner critic. And why wouldn't we? All we have been told by the org is that we have been born bad, we can never do enough and that kindness from god is "undeserved". This abusive voice tends to dominate, interfering with our ability thrive and enjoy our...
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#12 Fear of Falling Prey to Another Cult or Group
One of the more common fears I hear about from my clients is that they will unwittingly fall victim to another group or organization that doesn't have their best interests at heart. Because of this, they have trouble opening themselves up to new ideas or engaging with group situations. In this...
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#11 (Part 2): Keeping or Cutting Family and Friends
Loss of family and friends is one of the most painful aspects of leaving the org. Most of us will do anything in order to maintain those ties. But sometimes the lengths we go to keep those connections does us more harm than good. In this episode, we explore whether these ties are worth cutting or...
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#10 (Part 1): Keeping or Cutting Family and Friends
Loss of family and friends is one of the most painful aspects of leaving the org. Most of us will do anything in order to maintain those ties. But sometimes the lengths we go to keep those connections does us more harm than good. In this episode, we explore whether these ties are worth cutting or...
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#9 Keeping the Faith (NOT the religious kind)
Most of us have a negative association with the word "faith". To those of us who have escaped from high control religions, the word "faith" implies blind allegiance to a harmful belief systems that creates division and doesn't hold up to the slightest scrutiny. Today, we redefine and reclaim the...
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#8 Why it's so hard to wake them up (and some ideas if you choose to try)
What's better than waking up from the org? Waking and taking your friends and family with you. Sadly, this is easier said, and almost never done. In this episode we talk about the psychological mechanisms which keep people asleep, as well as a few ideas for those bold enough to try (please be...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
This podcast is dedicated to all things related to the process of waking up, walking out and moving on from life in a Christian cult or high control religion.Its host, Dr Ryan Lee, is a former Jehovah's Witness with a doctorate in clinical psychology and a practicing therapist, specializing in helping former JWs and other cult survivors move through the recovery and rebuilding processDr Lee covers a range of topics relating to coming to terms and healing from religious trauma and rebuilding a life after leaving a cult
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Ryan Lee
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Welcome to the World have?
Welcome to the World currently has 57 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Welcome to the World about?
This podcast is dedicated to all things related to the process of waking up, walking out and moving on from life in a Christian cult or high control religion.Its host, Dr Ryan Lee, is a former Jehovah's Witness with a doctorate in clinical psychology and a practicing therapist, specializing in...
How often does Welcome to the World release new episodes?
Welcome to the World has 57 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
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You can listen to Welcome to the World on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Welcome to the World?
Welcome to the World is created and hosted by Ryan Lee.
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