I wrote "Falling In Truth: The Education of a Jehovah’s Witness" over a quarter of a century ago, about a year after I left the organization. I had become a Witness when I was 18 years old, and had been accepted into Bethel (the world headquarters of JW’s) at 19. But, by the time I was 20, I became disillusioned, and left. To my knowledge, I was never disfellowshipped. Given my beliefs, it was felt that it would be "mutually agreed" that my leaving Bethel was for the best. From that day to this, I have never set foot in a Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

What caused my disillusionment is largely set out in the book which follows. It is a fictionalized account of my experiences, and those of others. I have taken the liberty of combining real people into "composite" people, and making up minor details. But anything of importance related here has happened, and nothing relating to doctrines, writings, and beliefs of the Witnesses has been fabricated.

I have read many books, pro and con, about the Witnesses. Few of the books written against the Witnesses impressed me. This is mainly because these books failed to really understand the viewpoint of a Witness: they merely attacked from the outside. Most of them attempted to prove things with arguments Witnesses are very prepared to answer. My book, though not an "attack", is certainly from the viewpoint of a Witness.

For those of you who have never been Jehovah’s Witnesses, this book should give you a good idea of what it is like to become one, and be one. But, since it was originally written with former Witness readers in mind, you would do well to read the appendix and glossary first.

This book has no particular setting or time. This was on purpose. However, since the Watchtower is continually changing the beliefs of Jehovah’s Witnesses, it might be good to assign an era. All of the beliefs referred to in this book were current in the mid 1970’s. As for locale: consider it a mid-sized city somewhere in the Northern United States.

Steve McRoberts, 1998