Danny de Hek: [00:00:00] You’re listening to Danny, on WHAT : DE HEK podcast. This is the place where I share my experience, knowledge and skills.
Darick Mitchell: [00:00:11] guest
Danny de Hek: [00:00:12] all the way from America, which I haven’t actually asked you. What part of America you’re from. You have to tell us Darick
Darick Mitchell: [00:00:18] Well Utar right now, but you time Nevada in Oklahoma
Danny de Hek: [00:00:23] Isn’t that where all the, the Mormons live.
Darick Mitchell: [00:00:26] Yup. Deal with them all day. Every day.
Danny de Hek: [00:00:30] Yeah.
I’m just curious where the Mormons live. Do they have bikes and they bike around all the time? Cause that’s the only time I see a Mormon and in New Zealand where I am they literally always want bikes.
Darick Mitchell: [00:00:40] Yep. They’re on bikes. They’re on a Ford focus.
Danny de Hek: [00:00:43] Wow. How about that? I’ve got you along and we’ve got a format which if you’re not familiar. What we do to our listeners we have 12 questions with what to hick and I’ve just got a card, a pack of about a hundred different questions. And I grabbed, I shuffled them in a grave at 12, and then I ask our geeses retina and Christian.
So, you know, I don’t know what the question is going to be next. And let’s see what the first one, if you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
Darick Mitchell: [00:01:07] Anywhere in the world. Probably Ireland I would go back in. Yeah. Yup. That’s a tough one because I love mountains and I love oceans. I live in Utah, hiked all over. I do love oceans and forests, but my heritage has a lot of Celtic. Great, great grandparents were Scottish and Irish.
Danny de Hek: [00:01:32] I was killed.
Darick Mitchell: [00:01:34] I didn’t have a kilt. No, backed by one of those things. Nobody wants to hear a Piper. That’s not good. It’s just that. Oh
Danny de Hek: [00:01:44] yeah.
I used to actually do a website for a guy who used to make the bags Galloway, bagpipes. They were called and it was quite an art, but he was. Oh, it is, he is really passionate about, but after talking to him and getting to know about the product, I could certainly see why they have to be passionate about to actually do them, but different sizes and had a look at here, your bag. Cause it’s it’s made at a well, it’s obviously something like a leather
Darick Mitchell: [00:02:11] I guess sheep’s bladder or something like that. Yeah.
Danny de Hek: [00:02:16] Did they make vegan ones?
Darick Mitchell: [00:02:19] Yeah, I’m sure they do. They make electronic ones. That actually sound pretty good. Pretty good. Yeah. A couple bands I listened to years ago.
Danny de Hek: [00:02:29] Now, as I said, these questions are random. So I don’t know if this question really applies, but you just said that you liked hiking and tramping. So how many pairs of shoes do your own? It’s probably more catered to the female variety, but I’m curious now.
Darick Mitchell: [00:02:42] Oh Lord. There’s a story that goes along with that one. When I met, when I first got married, my. Ex-wife now with these me, cause I always said if he had more than three pairs of shoes and they’ve been how’s Jehovah’s witness, but if you had more than three pairs of shoes, you were probably gay because imagine only have a pair of basketball shoes, a pair of meetings, shoes, and apparent work boots.
And that’s it. Well now the kind of work I do and the outdoors I do quick count. I probably have 20 pairs of shoes or 25.
Danny de Hek: [00:03:17] You are not a horder by any chance you don’t keep them and never throw them out.
Darick Mitchell: [00:03:20] No, I just, I have like three or four different pairs of cowboy boots. I’ve got, you know, a couple of pairs of doc Martins, a couple of pairs of basketball shoes and like six different pairs of hiking boots. So yeah, they’re not all when I, they wear out, I throw them away, but I’m kind of hard on shoes too, so, but yeah, I definitely get some.
Danny de Hek: [00:03:41] I went away at Christmas time and I left to pick them up every day shoes up of mine and my partner’s family. And I’m hoping to reunite with them next Christmas. But now I’m sort of like finding, oh, it’s quite handy.
I’ve got an extra pair of shoes laying around that I stopped wearing, but didn’t throw it. All right, mate. Here you go. Here’s your opportunity if you ruled the world, what would you day? Oops, sorry. I already read that. If you, if you ruled the world, what would you change on day one?
Darick Mitchell: [00:04:09] If I ruled the world, I get rid of I think borders, borders would be gone. Yeah, that’d be no, no, no reason. I mean, I don’t know. I think from an American perspective, it just makes me upset. Just cause it’s, you know, There’s always the race that it just seems to breed racism or hate and things like that. There’s nothing that ever happens good because of a border. So if everybody just got together as a one, one race, one human race, then it’d be just better.
Danny de Hek: [00:04:43] I was watching the palette as it Palatines and I see that right. And the, I was watching on tech talk and now were showing them, trying to shoot the planes down with their, as they flew into the air space. And I’ve got these These amazing.
Well, it’s not amazing, but they’re all bullets and they fly for the sky. It’s like what? In the skinny, trying to shoot these helicopters down. And it was just like, oh my goodness. You know, it’s like an arcade game, but the, eh, hard to comprehend that people live life like that and think it’s suitable that they can shoot and kill and yeah.
All because of land and rights and. Well it’s let me see world. We live in, but the end is near. Do not worry. My friend,
Darick Mitchell: [00:05:22] this is just around the corner. We got to get this in your later
Danny de Hek: [00:05:28] and a paradise if, and we’ll be able to sit there and pet lines. If you hear that story
Darick Mitchell: [00:05:34] before me. Oh yeah, for me, it was a tiger though.
Yeah.
Danny de Hek: [00:05:40] Right? Who knows you the best?
Darick Mitchell: [00:05:44] Oh who knows me the best right now, my grandpa passed away a few years. It would have been him. So the one that’s left would be Rachel, my current girlfriend that has been my best friend for about two years. Just because she knew me when I was a Jehovah’s witness.
And then she’s known me, I had a pretty rapid. It was a controlled change, but it was a rapid change to like, I’m going to go figure out the world now. And so she knows both sides of that, which there’s not many people that know both
Danny de Hek: [00:06:15] sides of that.
You get yourself in a new relationship having to go through. Oh, let me explain. Because the first thing they want to do is meet your family and you go, eh, that’s not a good idea. Oh, why not? And it’s kind of comes like, it’s like your problem. But if people do understand your background and you know, that’s why I like the, EXJW community, because you can speak the same language and you can tell a story and not have to explain it. And I get what you’re on about, and they laugh. Cause the guy they, him to meet, you know, not a lot of parallel finding when talking to others.
Darick Mitchell: [00:06:50] Yeah, she was good because she was raised LDS. She was a Mormon, but she, she left when she was 12 or 13. And so she had that conservative Christian background. It was different than mine, but then when I would tell her things about being a Jehovah’s witness, she trusted me. So she believed me. But then in a way, she was like, she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. And so there was a couple of YouTube offers a germ, that’s got some videos on YouTube and she saw some of his and was like, He has some stories that are just like yours.
I can’t believe it. They were a hundred percent true. Everything was true. And I’m like, yeah, it wasn’t imbalanced or not that craziness. And she’s like, so yeah, that, that having people that can understand it is definitely a help when you’re leaving. For sure.
Yeah. Because
Danny de Hek: [00:07:35] sometimes you think it’s too surreal and you don’t really think this is you think the voices in my head and making up this stuff.
Darick Mitchell: [00:07:41] Yeah. I’m lucky to have her. And then my roommate, my kind of like my little brother he left when he was 18 and I’ve had. We connected, we stayed in touch, but then when I left, we connected and picked right back up. And so I had a couple of really strong people to help me out.
Danny de Hek: [00:07:58] Yeah. Well, funny enough. I had a bit of a story on last Sunday. I’d meet my half sister that I been trying to track down and I’d met him when I was 14, but it was I was trying to explain to her that I’m not very good at being. Family. Yeah. I’m not very good living in a family cause I’m not used to one, you know, so it’s, you know, I’m going to really struggle to stay in touch with you.
And it’s not that I don’t want to, but I just don’t have that habit where we don’t do family dinners and get togethers. And I see it. So I’m going to make a real effort, you know, so let’s book a time. Otherwise it was six months down the track and I’ve met her once and haven’t sort of gotten involved so hard because it’s but you know, like when you reconnect with somebody that you I’m 51, so what’s that 37 years ago I met this lady once. Who’s my sister. And it just feels like it’s just a waste of a lot of energy that you, you know, somebody you could have had in your life could have made a huge difference either way and you just missed out. So it’s nice that you can reconnect with, so is it your brother or what?
Darick Mitchell: [00:08:54] Who was it?
No, I refer to him as my little brother. We, I met him 22 years ago. Yeah. And he was I’m best friends. Well, I was really good friends with his dad. His dad’s an elder and he left. He left when he was 18, his parents told him either you keep going to meetings or you move out. They went to meeting on a Sunday, the day he turned 18. So he moved stuff out and he, you know, had a punk rock band and did a bunch of stuff.
And we always stayed in touch. He was never baptized. So we was kind of in that gray area, he just left, you know? And so, yeah, so he doesn’t disfellowship or anything. So we stayed in touch. We hung out every now and then and things, and then. When I left we got the, we ended up moving in together a couple of months after, so yeah, let’s go.
Danny de Hek: [00:09:44] Eh, I just before we got online, I guy rang me Neville Aiden, pretty sure it was his last name. And I would have been 23. So once again, that’s a long time ago, isn’t it? This whatever it is a few quite a few years ago, cause I’m 51. So it’s 28 years ago and this guy went off the tracks. He was married at a young age and he separated with his wife.
He just rang me and, and cause I saw him on Facebook and then all of a sudden he decided to bring me in and he’s telling me what’s been happening in his life. You know, we weren’t really close, but it was just so unusual to be able to reconnect with somebody after 20 odd years. But we could, we’re talking about the same stuff.
Like it was yesterday and the people we knew and he just wants to catch up with, you know, my him, but it’s still a fixed, you kind of get away from it. It’s not a normal. All right. I’ve got a boring question. Do you have any hobbies,
Darick Mitchell: [00:10:33] too many? Kind of cut them, cut them down. I have so many stuff that I was doing. My. I mean, if you look at most of my website, anything I have on YouTube or, you know, Instagram, it, it says Jack of all trades master of none, because I’m interested in a lot of stuff, but I’m also kind of bored easily. So.
I, you know, find something and do it for a while and then thought, but my ex, my ex father-in-law taught me how to do leather work for you, you know, actual tooling of the leather work, not just making things, but the artistic tooling, the carving and the beveling to make like a 3d picture on things.
And so I, I really do enjoy that. And that’s what I would
Danny de Hek: [00:11:12] like to do more
when I was a Jehovah’s witness. It was always hard finding the right size bag to put your Bible. And your reasoning with the scriptures and you watched test. Did you make a bag, ever? Was that before that time?
Darick Mitchell: [00:11:27] No, I my father-in-law I’ve known him since I was seven or eight years old. He actually taught leather, working at a school. I went to when I was in elementary school. And so I learned leather work from him for years and years and years, a lot of the JW. But I’ve never made a bag. I made, we made Bible covers. We made. I made a bunch of bookmarks and book covers for an international convention.
We went to an Estonia about eight years ago stuff like
Danny de Hek: [00:11:55] that, but because you know, I hit my mind.
I had to laugh, but it was know I was, oh, where’d you get your bag? And they used to have this commercial called lands for bags. And it used to be the same, but wouldn’t believe you probably wouldn’t have seen that one. How long ago was it that you lift the Jehovah’s witness organization? It was, it was 18 months ago. It wasn’t one, not that long ago.
Darick Mitchell: [00:12:15] So I stepped down, I was a ministerial servant, and I stepped down the beginning of September and 2019. And then I, about two weeks after I stepped down, I wasn’t disfellowshipped or anything. I just, I stepped down because of a disagreement I had with. The way I situation was handled by the elder body. And I just said, you know, I’m not going to manage all of his witness, but I’m, I can’t be in the leadership. I just can’t do it because of this. And so, so I stepped down and they wouldn’t have half of the elder body.
He wouldn’t even talk to me the next meeting that as a hall where I, yeah. And I was treated in a way, like I was already disfellowshipped. So within about two weeks and talking to some people I’d already had some. Doubts and questions before that. And then the way the situation I’ve talked about with handled that was done anyway.
So I was just like, you know, what, if they’re going to treat me that way, I’m just not going to go back. And I called him up to the end. It was middle of September,
Danny de Hek: [00:13:15] 2019.
Like gold stars. The organization. Cause every time when you first start out, the first job you’re going to do is you get to be able to do a five minute talk. Then you get privileges along the way. And I arrive in Mike’s be able to sit at the back and look after the sound and then you become an unbaptized publisher and then an all the way. So as soon as you get to the, you know, cause what do you become administrative? And then you become an elder and then you become a circuit overseer.
And if you’re lucky you get to go to visit the Bethel. But when, when the organization sees that you want to go backwards, I don’t think they have a formula. For that. Yeah. They’re like, you can’t do that. And it’s like turning your back on Jehovah. Don’t do that because we’ll punish you. You know?
Darick Mitchell: [00:14:02] So
So my, my uncle even told me one time, he says, he’s always kinda, he’s still a ministerial servant, but he, he out, when I told him I stepped down and he’s like, that’s a shocker.
He goes, it’s easier to get appointed than it is to get to step down because I, yeah, I, I had to fight. It was three meetings for me to finally tell him like, no, I’m, I’m done. They kept telling me no, no, we’re not going to tell the circuit overseer yet. Naps three different meetings by them. Like guys, you tell him, or I have his number. I’ll tell him myself.
Danny de Hek: [00:14:35] Oh, it’s such a thing. Okay. Let’s go back into the question and see where it takes us. Huh. Okay. Good question. This one. What’s one thing you will never do again.
Darick Mitchell: [00:14:47] Ooh. Well, the answer that the answer that Rachel would tell me is never date an Aries again, but I’m not that much in, I’m not that much in, it was the first thing that popped in my head, but that’s not what I would do. I’ll never, gosh, I, the one thing I know I’ll never do, I will never, ever be part of an organized religion. And again, I don’t care. What it is. I just, it just doesn’t make sense to me. You know, no matter how good they seem to start out, they just, it never ends up well. I think that’s kind of a spirituality needs to be a personal journey if you’re going to go that way and it doesn’t need to be controlled by a group. And somebody’s going to take advantage of it or use it to take advantage of someone else. So I just don’t don’t ever see me being there.
Been involved in
Danny de Hek: [00:15:34] the EX Jehovah Witness what does the community I’m finding is a covered a few different types of people. And for me, I don’t really care anymore about. The Bible purpose or whether we got here from Edelman, but then you get some people who seem to be, that’d be still searching for the truth and they call it the truth or looking for God, or, you know, trying to interpret the scriptures.
And I sort of I think you are in or out. I mean, I’ve just turned my back on the whole lot and I’m now just, I probably rely more on fate and whatever will be, will be. And I, I quite like that, but did you have to. Do you still search for like, do you still believe in the Bible or have you, do you have a belief or
Darick Mitchell: [00:16:21] I believe
I believe the Bible is a book. I don’t believe it’s the end all be all anymore. Like I was raised to I think two of the big things is there’s, there’s a. What do you call it a saying, I don’t know who said it off hand, so I’m not going to try and attribute it to anyone, but it’s not me saying it, which is the more, you know, the more, you know, you don’t know.
Yeah.
So the smarter we get, the more we learn, the more we learn about how things work around us. We understand that there’s no way I’m going to ever understand everything. And so then another thing that kind of goes with that, that I caught on too quick, which his name is Fifth. He’s got an album, I think Cost of Doin’ Business.
Yeah. So, so it’s, it’s a line in one of his songs, which is where I heard it first, but I think he heard it from someone else too. Was. I’d rather have answers. I, or I’d rather have questions. I can’t answer the answers. I can’t question. And as soon as I started looking at the world like that, like I have a hard time believing there’s not some type of intelligent design, but I don’t believe in the God of the Bible.
I don’t believe there’s a God that’s going to hold me accountable. There’s some something out there that’s bigger than me. That probably had a way to put me here. How I connect. That’s not
Danny de Hek: [00:17:34] your cramping in the boldness and you’ve got your new boots on. And you came across this beautiful cabin in the woods. Do you really think that it just got there all by itself? Did you use that example?
Darick Mitchell: [00:17:49] So what’s the purpose of the cabin.
I was it was in a more arid area, so it was a house in the desert, but yeah, exactly.
Danny de Hek: [00:17:58] I’m just happy to use somebody’s building some shout or do I just happened to stumble across it? And what’s the purpose of the, what was the purpose of it? And it’s like, oh, here we go. Again. I I have a business networking company and often I just blew it out. I used to be a Jehovah’s witness and I said, but it helped me book my sales techniques, you know, like you’d knock on somebody’s door and you go knock, knock them outside. They’re not interested. And as you know, when you’re not going a hundred doors and a hundred people said, they’re not interested.
You come up with a workaround. And the workaround used to be. Is it Jehovah’s witnesses. You’re not interested in religion. And most people will put easy. Right. And they got all religion. I said, well, I can appreciate that because wouldn’t you agree that religion is responsible for a lot of the mayhem in the world, but don’t worry.
I’m not here to preach religion with you today. And it’d be like, oh, you have just sideswiped. The I’m not interested. Suddenly said, have you got the, you
Darick Mitchell: [00:18:55] know, got it.
You got to get past those conversations stopers.
I use them in business,
Danny de Hek: [00:19:00] right. It’s like, what obstacles can I help you overcome? Okay. So other than that psychological stuff, because you haven’t been out of the Rosen for too long, and I can only assume that you’re still going through a lot of you know, a lot of thoughts.
I mean, I’ve been out of it for 28 years and just like I said, just before this interview, I got somebody ringing me up. I hadn’t. Heard from since that time. So it keeps popping back into my life and I can’t get away from it. And it’s like you said, you’ve been through a divorce. I went through one as well and people say, how long did it take you to get over the divorce?
And I go, it was w if you asked me two years out, I would say two years, if you asked me five years out, I’d say five years, but it’s up to probably take me about 12 years now. But ask me in 15 years. So it takes a lot of a toll on your mind. So how do you this question is how do you recharge, but probably how do you keep yourself sane from the thoughts that must be going through your head, maybe another, like, what keeps you, what keeps you on the straight and narrow?
Darick Mitchell: [00:19:56] I credit. I wasn’t going to be involved in religion, but I always felt, and the thing that keeps me grounded and I go back to. I don’t know how everything works, but I’m never going to claim to know how the universe works, but I’ve always been grounded when I’m outside. I’ve always felt balanced when I’m outside.
I love trees. I love, I’ve always growing up. We lived right next to the woods and I’d go to the woods all the time. I was on the RBC for if you’re not familiar with JW stuff, it was the building committees in the U S to build the kingdom house. And it was back before there were. Limit on age. So I was six foot one and 200 pounds when I was 12, 13 years old.
So I was helping my uncles spraying the kingdom halls all summer long from when I was just, you know, 12 years old. And, but there was one time we were having our, our hall remodeled. And they just said, well, go to a neighboring congregation. Cause there was about seven kingdom halls within a 10 minute drive.
There’s a lot of witnesses in the salt lake area. And one of my friends says, well, yeah. So he says, you know what, well, how are you going to go up to? And I said, honestly, I said, this is one of the few Sundays. I don’t have a talk. I don’t have to run the sound. I don’t have to run the video. Cause we were doing video at the time.
I said, you know what, I’m going to go to the high church of the you winters. Which is our, our mountain range up north of us as the Utar mountain range. And so I just, that’s how I recharge. And the people that knew me, they knew that, oh, Darick needs to go camping. He needs to go out in the woods or else he’s going to be a jerk for a while.
So let him go do his thing. And then other people got really offended that I referred to it as the high church, but I’m just like, at the time, I’m like, it’s, Jehovah creation, I’m out appreciating Jehovah. So now I. I’m pretty connected to my surroundings. And I found Noah Rasheta does a book no nonsense guide to Buddhism, but it’s more as Buddhism as a way of life, not a, a religion, just a way to be a better whatever you are.
And that was kind of just, that’s kinda kept me on that path. And then I just tried to stay connected with nature, and that seemed to
Danny de Hek: [00:22:08] keep me more balanced. Some time of the year.
Do you tramp out in all seasons?
Darick Mitchell: [00:22:16] We get both. My favorite part is I love the fall, the autumn time, but I kind of avoid being outside in the winter.
We have the best that Utah’s motto is the best. No on earth. I haven’t skied since I was 12 or 13. I don’t like being out in the cold. So spring and fall are my favorite
Danny de Hek: [00:22:34] One walk. I normally take people up in the summertime. I thought I’d tramp out there in the wintertime and there’s tin sherd. It would literally be three meters by two meters, maybe a little bit bigger.
And it had a fire on there and I thought, oh, I’m so cold. And it was snowing and windy. And it was literally the middle of nowhere. So I lit the fire and then all the smoke started, the chimney wasn’t working. So the whole thing started filling up with smoke and I thought, well, I’m. The dilemma was suffocate or keep warm.
So I just keep the fire going. So the smoke would only be in, I was crashing down as low as I could, but I remember that night I had two sleeping bags. Two pairs of pants on are still cold, and I just got myself all kind of warm and then I had to go to the loo. Ah, but yeah, eh, nature. And we’ve got a real nice here and where I’m from Christchurch, New Zealand.
It’s it’s just got lots of tramps where you can go out for three or four hours and get to a hut. And normally you’ll be there by yourself. But sometimes the snow can change real quick. So this is a whole lot of flooding here. Ironically, it’s even more steady our main highway and main highway, one of our bridges.
So yeah, so that’s what happens. Wow, Christian oh dear. This is the mean question for an EX Jehovah witness, but I’ve got to ask it because it’s dig and you can bypass it if you want. What. Okay. Here’s a good favorite family holiday.
Darick Mitchell: [00:23:57] Oh, my favorite family holiday. So like we’re talking what I would have referred to as worldly holidays now.
Danny de Hek: [00:24:03] Yeah. Yeah, that’s funny.
Darick Mitchell: [00:24:05] Or like family vacation. You mean like family vacation? Is that what you mean?
Danny de Hek: [00:24:09] Didn’t go off to Las Vegas. Yeah.
Darick Mitchell: [00:24:15] He so I mentioned a bunch of states when I started and I’m actually, they hadn’t been down there this month. My grandma was originally from Oklahoma and I would go down there with her almost every summer for I only got food to go down there for three months. I would usually get to go with her for sure.
And I really enjoyed going down there because it was, I look back and it’s, none of her family was witnesses and it was just. Real good folks, country, you know, slow down, slow life again, it was all nature. My punk grandpa had 200 acres out in the river bottom. And so I was there almost every summer since then, before she passed away.
I think her back there every year for two, two weeks and the last four years she was around, we took her back every year. So
Danny de Hek: [00:25:04] This one’s probably similar to the other questions, actually, if you could go back in time. What’s one thing I’ve got to reread this. If you could go back in time to change one thing, what would it be? So you can change one thing and go back and tell them very similar to a question we just had already, what would you change still be administrative?
Darick Mitchell: [00:25:24] Well, if we’re going to go back in time, I’d probably go kill Hitler, but. Yeah. If I can do one thing,
Danny de Hek: [00:25:32] One of my other questions was actually, if you could have a meal with anyone, who would it be in somebody’s answer data’s Hitler and Jesus.
Darick Mitchell: [00:25:46] Well, mine, mine would be my grandpa, but since nobody knows him, the closest other thing would be Anthony Bordain. So what’s the veil on that one. Anthony Bordain he’s he wrote kitchen confidential and he did no reservations. He traveled all over and he was, he’s kind of a, he’s had an outlook on life of just get out there, experience, meet everybody, do everything.
Cause you’re here. I mean, I have Memorial tattoos. He died a few years back and I’ve got Memorial tattoos up here that are a famous his, so he’s, he’s been a big. I’m pretty inked up in two years. Yeah.
Danny de Hek: [00:26:27] I remember my ex wife at the time. I was thinking about getting one and I think we got a divorce about two months afterwards.
So it was pretty, pretty lucky escape, but it was trying to sit in the wild we put on it, you know, making a decision on what tattoo to put on. I would, I’m not very good at that.
Darick Mitchell: [00:26:45] It was funny cause I, I got left in September. I got my first tattoo in October and it just so happened to be on the same day. I was baptized on October 29th. And my first tattoo was on October
Danny de Hek: [00:26:57] There some real mean one on some jehovah witness Facebook pages. Some people were getting some brilliant ones. I’ve seen some, have you seen any of those popping up?
Darick Mitchell: [00:27:04] Oh yeah,
Danny de Hek: [00:27:05] Yeah. Another real quick, just by looking at it. Cause they’re an exchange was working as a matter of real estate, but that’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done podcasts with Danny to HIG. I have no. Oh, well, it doesn’t have to be, it doesn’t have to be legal.
Darick Mitchell: [00:27:27] No craziest thing I’ve probably ever done is I used to have a pretty, I’ve always had pretty fast cars and I had one that I had Alexis, I asked 300, I had a terrible on it and it could make them Corvettes cry. And I had it up to about one 40 on a public public highway. That was the craziest dumbest thing I’ve ever done.
Danny de Hek: [00:27:51] I think it was 6.3 liter engine, and I took that for a spin on a public highway as you call it, that was 243, 243 kilometers. So what’s that, what’s that work at it that we get that I wouldn’t go any faster.
Darick Mitchell: [00:28:06] Mine mine puffed out. That’s 150, so yeah, same speed. 159. Now
Danny de Hek: [00:28:12] I used to have the holden. I think they call them something else in America, but they’ve got the Chevy engine in them.
Darick Mitchell: [00:28:20] Yeah. GM GM had some Holden cars. So the, they called it the Pontiac grand or the, it was when they released the DCL. It was a hole in it.
Danny de Hek: [00:28:33] I found it on the Speedo and I just plan a boot and you just watch it. I think it changed into fourth at 190. And you can see a change. It was in the noise of, it was pretty amazing. But when I think back holding the camera up on the Speedo, when you’re driving at that sort of speed and it was late at night as well, because, and it was way, way at the middle of nowhere.
But boy, the thing, cause I used to have my first Holden. Wasn’t zipped up. The second one was a mid range one, and then they are right. Was had the racing suspension in it and everything. And when I took the F the second to last one for a spin, didn’t feel very good. It started to get bit loose on the road and it didn’t feel safe, but this other car, the R8 Holden just sank down on the road and it felt like it wanted to go there.
It just really, it was set up beautifully, you know? So I sold it, I sold it. I only kit for two years, but it was just too scary man.
Darick Mitchell: [00:29:26] Holden just when I just shut down. Not too long ago. Didn’t they. Then the Holden’s just, that was, that was that it’s the truth from the tires.
Danny de Hek: [00:29:37] The tires were like magnets on the road and they just, they all, they rub out on the inside and they were like New Zealand money, probably about 500 us each. And that only lasts 20,000 Ks and you’d have to replace it.
Darick Mitchell: [00:29:50] Yeah. I, I had a, I had a Porsche 944 for a couple of years in the back tires were 500 bucks a piece and I, I burned through. They, they never lasted more than like four months. I would destroy them.
They were 14 and a half inches wide, so yeah, they were huge, but the back room was .
Danny de Hek: [00:30:13] Oh, then you’ve been in well, I’ve been in one racing, pause, Porsche wasn’t in a race car, but I hadn’t even felt the power. Of a portion to them. I might put his foot down in this thing and I’m just going, whoa.
Cause you know, like the are real heavy, these things aren’t heavy, but they just pull like a school. Boy, if you could say that, you know, we’ve got a common interest, we love cars, but I, I, I remember I’ve got a suitcase with the sport now. I don’t even think you have them in America data.
Darick Mitchell: [00:30:41] We had this Suzuki swift for awhile. It was just a little hatchback over here.
Danny de Hek: [00:30:46] I think it goes quite well, but it’s not quite the same as the V8 though. I shock people because they don’t realize how much power it got. But yeah. Anyway, what’s three things that you would take with you to a desert island.
Darick Mitchell: [00:31:03] Oh, my cookery. So big hunting knife for people that aren’t familiar. I spend a lot of time outdoors. That’s an easy one. Not my metal canteen. And a big chunk of Paracort
Danny de Hek: [00:31:21] unit’s pretty, I guess, funny answers to that question in the past. Always makes some acidic chair, a bottle or something and you know, suntan lotion. Okay. Really? It’s not a holiday.
Darick Mitchell: [00:31:35] I guess. I guess it depends on how yes. Yeah. It depends on how long I’m stuck there. But I assume by that I’m stuck out there
Danny de Hek: [00:31:43] But there’ll be not the straight into thinking. I’m going to be here for six months, at least, and then playing out, you know, bigger picture stuff.
Darick Mitchell: [00:31:52] I have seriously considered applying for that alone show, especially now that I’m not married, but Rachel would go for that one. But. By the first guy that did that. He, he was out there for almost a year on
Danny de Hek: [00:32:07] to get out of that. I mean, you know, and then there’s obviously two of them who are competing against you. So they’re not knowing that a unusual one, the smell. What characteristics do you admire? And others, does it resonate with you?
Darick Mitchell: [00:32:22] My big thing is. Honesty. I hate just I’ve told everybody I’d spent too many years kind of pretending to be something I wasn’t fully committed to. So now I just kind of say it how it is. And I, for a long time, even when I was a Jehovah’s witness, I just said, you know, I’ll never say something behind your back.
I wouldn’t say to your face. And I can say some pretty bad stuff, but it’s just, if I’m saying it, it probably needs to be fed unfortunately, but yeah, I just. I like to know where I stand with people. And pretty much everybody knows where they stand with me right away. And that’s kind of the way I prefer it. It’s people that are just honest.
Danny de Hek: [00:33:00] When you leave often because your family just communicates you, you’re sort of stunned with it, but then you think why out of respect for your family and other people that are still believing it, you keep your mouth shut. These days I’ve sort of changed my focus. I, you know, my first podcast, when I was talking about being an ex chives witness, I upset two people that aren’t in the religion anymore because I mentioned their first names.
And if people know me, they’d probably figure out who I’m talking about and now they don’t talk to me. And and it’s like, oh, well, and they’re not even in the religion. And this is not me speaking out, but I think they said I should take it off. And I go, no, I don’t want to. I’m sick of. Not, you know, say affects me or anything.
Darick Mitchell: [00:33:41] Yeah, I just decided I’m not gonna, I’m not gonna pretend about anything. I am what I am and if you don’t like it I’m sorry, I don’t have time for them.
Danny de Hek: [00:33:52] So I have 12 questions, but I mean like we’ve so our common interest is obviously the people listening. I listened to this, I probably figured out we both were ex Jehovah’s witnesses.
I’m about 28 years out now. And you’re, and you’ve really just started over a year. Is that right? Or I forgot that right. Well, not even that 10 months. Yeah. So I wrote on you having someone advice on her, thinking about leaving the Jehovah’s witness organization and, and they’re sort of there’s a fancy word for them. Is it Tim’s or P I.
Darick Mitchell: [00:34:25] I have a PIMO and POMO, so physically and mentally out, physically out.
Danny de Hek: [00:34:30] So mentally, obviously sit there as a dilemma. I can’t run the room, whether they should leave or not. What advice would you give them? Is it like outside the organization?
Darick Mitchell: [00:34:45] Yeah. And that’s the thing. Jillian she’s got a YouTube channel and she was interviewing some people actually just was doing a little short video today that I was, it made me think about something, which was just that, it’s the thing that really bugs Jehovah’s witnesses after you leave is if you’re out there and you’re happy because.
That’s not what’s supposed to happen. It just that, you know, that’s not what you’re told is going to happen. And I’m, you know, life isn’t easy. It’s not a cakewalk. I told you this week, it was crazy. I mean, I had a storage unit broken into and I had probably $15,000 worth of tools stolen. You know, it’s been a rough week, but overall where my life is, I have no complaints.
You know, I just, I literally have no complaint. I don’t, I’m not mad for how I was raised or anything. So my, my advice was for me, what I did is I had had questions for a couple years ever since my grandpa passed away for about two years before I left. And once I got treated the way I was, when I stepped down as a ministerial servant, I just started looking at other religions, other beliefs, What people outside the religion were saying about the religion instead of anything that was just fed from the governing body.
And what did it for me was I had had shoulder surgeries and I couldn’t work anymore physically for a while. And so I’d become a private investigator and the investigator to me, I enjoy it. And well, when, when. When the brothers, when the, when the governing body wouldn’t answer the LR penis of the Australian Royal commission, that was like, I’ve delivered subpoenas through the top, you know, elders at the Mormon church.
And, and they answer the subpoenas and I’m like, you know, you’re God’s organization on earth. You’re not going to answer a subpoena, but like you’re telling me I had to register for military service knowing full well, I mean, When I was a kid that was when they were talking about bringing the draft back for one of the wars over in Iraq.
And it’s like, I knew full well as was, I was registering that I could get drafted and I was going to go to prison. You know, I’d seen all these brothers in Korea that done it, and I’m like, I’ll answer that. But you guys are the top guys in the world. You won’t go talk to the court. If you got God’s blessing, you used to be able to go in there and tell that judge, what for, and who cares?
And so then I really started looking into it and was just like, you know what, I’m not going to do this. So just stop and look at everything you can with an open mind, because you don’t realize it till you’re out, but you just, you have a pre prejudice when you think that everything outside of the organization is influenced by state.
So as soon as you take that away, You can learn a lot from a lot of people, because you’re not thinking that they’re trying to trick you by being, you know, from Satan or whatever. So as soon as I did that, I really
Danny de Hek: [00:37:56] You can get labeled apostate pretty quick. You know, like my mum rang me and she hadn’t talked to me for two years and said to me, when we was talking about how she has seen watched all these YouTube videos and she’s listened to them, all she reckons and I’m thinking, oh, there’s a good one of Lloyd Evans there that I’m going to center. And then there’s another guy called Dan he’s on. He, the six nations he’s part of that or at some radio show in America forgotten who it is.
But anyway, he had a real good via that coming in yesterday. And so I’ve seen that to my mum as well. And I thought, well, she’s watched all these videos, but the problem is they just literally shut off. And it’s just like this big wall, anything negative, you know, they don’t want to, they just turn their back on and they can’t handle it.
And it’s really weird. So you sit and you’re trying to reason, and then you think, oh, it’s just, doesn’t make matter. And it’s just such a interesting protection mechanism that I’ve been brainwashed with. You know, and it’s just like literally before. I sent my mom a txt today and just talking about affidavits and, you know, I thought, well, why not?
What happened with people like us decided to take the elders that does communicate us from the church legally. And you know, for like in the workplace, if you treated somebody really bad you, you would be able to Sue your employer, but how can three men sit in a room and tell you that you’re basically no.
Good. And then say that we’re gonna. This communicate you from your family and make your family not talk to you and not be held accountable. And the only time you want to I’m thinking, well, why do people like me decide to take the organization to court? And then I think, well, why take the organization to court?
Why not take the three men that treated me this way to court? And, you know, and, and, you know, thinking I’m just, you know, you think of these processes and on the way that you think, well, why can’t, why do people, why are they allowed to do that’s? Why are they allowed to treat you? Because any other organ, any other thing in the world that we live in, you’re not allowed to that all of a sudden, because it’s got religion flag flying over it, they can treat you like, you know, they caused you a lot of harm, you know?
Yes.
Darick Mitchell: [00:40:06] Yeah, no, you make a you’re dead on. I, my response to that is I, that was, I’m not disfellowshipped. I laughed and I, I told that was it an elder that I’ve known in my hall? I’ve been a minister. I was in that hall for 10 years. And there was an elder that was like, my dad had, and I told him, I said, look, this is why I’m leaving.
I’m done. And I, you know, I’m, I’ll continue to support my wife and my son in the religion. And they can make their own choice. My son had just turned 18 and he was baptized already. And I said, but I’m not going to have anything to do with it. I don’t want to talk about it. And I intended to stay in my marriage, but that ended a couple months later.
It was just, my wife was very, very into it. She just, you know, totally pioneer all the way. Just that’s all she loves. That’s all she did. So it was hard for her. So after I moved out, they, they tried to, you know, talk to me and have me come in to even tried to call and have me have a cup of coffee. And I asked him, I said, is it just going to be you?
Or are you bringing two friends? I mean, he actually was like, well, what do you mean? I said, you know exactly what I mean. And my response to him was, is you’re right. And the thing is as much as it hurts me to say, this is if I was in that situation, I would Sue. The branch and I would do the three brothers and I essentially told him that.
I said, look, I walked away. I don’t see you as an authority figure in any way, shape or form. Now I never did anything while I was in the religion to merit being disfellowshipped. I told you that I’m leaving and I do not give you the authority to tell my friends and family that they have to not associate with me.
And I said, so here’s the deal. You can do whatever you want. But I said, I would strongly suggest that before you ever try and do a judicial committee or you try and send me a certified letter saying I’m just fellowship. I said you better contact book, illegal, just like you guys had to do for the situation I told you about.
And when you contact Brooklyn legal and say, this guy has an attorney on retainer, and if we disfellowship him, all of us are going to court. I said, you better be ready to fight cause I’m not. No one’s going to tell. If my family chooses that on their own, which the majority of them have a few haven’t, but the majority of them, they treat me like I’m disfellowshipped, but that’s their choice.
Now. I’m not going to let the organization tell my friends and family that it’s without, without having a fight, I think it’s definitely a year and a half. Don’t give them any power, whatever
Danny de Hek: [00:42:49] it’s like, just. I just men, and they, you know, I just think I’ve been through heaps of judicial committees. I’ve probably had 10 of them in my time.
I got kicked out twice. And I remember bawling my eyes out, sitting in the back of the kingdom hall and I think they must’ve thought I was going to do myself harm. So then they brought me back in after four months and then six months later I’m out again. It’s like, oh my God. But it’s just really weird, you know, like, yeah, because I mean, at the time they mean so much to you.
These elders, you know, and like I got a letter, a handwritten letter put in our letter box and I’m angry and I thought I’ll stuff this, and I thought, I don’t want this one. I was actually panicking because my pattern was opening. Oh, I wonder what it says. And I said, I want to know it’s from my mum or it’s been intended for me as her reaching out to me in some form or whatever it was.
And I thought, and stop there. So it was just a random leader. Minister find my private investigator. You’d be proud of minister. Fine. Her husband that wrote the letter cause she put her name on it and he’s a justice of the peace and he obviously marries people and then I found their home address.
What else did I find out about him? His phone number? And so I rang him up and well, first of all, I got the letter jumped over the fence. The kingdom hall taped it on the front door and the video, it. On a Facebook live. And and then I rang up the guy a week later, basically saying, look, I don’t have anything to do with you guys.
You know, this Letter upset me. And I said, I’ve had two people in my family, she suicide. And I said, when you send a letter like that to people, are you not concerned that there could be a trigger for me and push me over the edge? Because that’s the power of your leaders. You can upset people. You don’t know who you’re delivering these leaders to.
And you’re doing it all in the name of God, but you actually upset me. And I see it and I will put you on the do not list. call thing. If you give me your address. And I started telling him his address told him, you know, where he lived and I said, we can investigate stuff too, mate. And I said, and I sit in, the funny thing is the only reason I’m kicked out of the organization is because every time I did something wrong, I ran to the elders.
And told them about it. And then they put me through the case. I said, my brother, which is Rickie Charlesworth, he’s in your congregation. Now he’s an alcoholic. And I said, no, no. You’ve talked to him about his drinking problems. He’s got done for DIC. So he’s lost his license, drinking charge. And I sit in and you still let him in there.
And I said, I still know he’s has a drinking problem. So say, but rather than being a liar, I want it to be truthful. Like we were taught and but you still let them remain. So I said, I don’t know, who’s better than one in the one out. But eh, and then I had the privilege of asking him, you must be freaking out at the moment with the all the stuff going on in Australia.
And he goes, oh, what do you mean? He said, do you know the 1100, they live in a hundred cases of people that have had child molest station the whole nine yards. And the organization never once went to the authorities about it. I said, now they have to hand over all their records. They sit there, it must be, are it happens in organizations?
And I said, but I’m not part of any organization that has any of that going on. And, you know yeah. But when I was talking to the guy, nothing, you know, there’s no, there’s, there’s no, there’s no leverage. There’s no. Getting through to them or I’m not making any difference and it’s just a waste of time. Isn’t it?
Darick Mitchell: [00:46:17] Well, the cats, the tough part is, is that the worst or at the very least three’s innocuous part of that, it would be if they don’t know that it could trigger you and they’re just doing it. Cause they don’t, they don’t think about that far ahead because that’s not what they’re trained in the kingdom ministry or in our.
You know, then the theocratic book of you’re in, but the worst case scenario is, you know, you’re when you’re taught those things. When you’re taught to talk to people at the doors, you’re actually taught to. If someone tells you something that’s bad, you know, a loved one has died or something like that, you offer them hope.
So if they’re triggered, you’re hoping that then they reached out to you and wants you to teach them more. So, you know, it goes from being, hopefully it was just somebody not thinking and just writing addresses or. Worst case is it’s almost like trying to get a trigger, getting someone’s feelings, riled up.
Danny de Hek: [00:47:12] Can you tell me something that will push me down some road? I just say in a very mundane voice I’d rather shoot myself in the face then listen to that. Sorry. And they they are all, that’s a bit drastic and like uh, yeah, I know. Yeah. All right, man. Hey, it’s been lovely to have you on the, what the hit podcast and it really Thank you for sharing your story.
And I know you’ve got a lot of things that have gone in your life, and it’s probably not always the best idea to get on a public area and talk about it, but I’m glad you did, so I’m sure you’ll help others who listen on.
Darick Mitchell: [00:47:51] Yeah, I’m trying a little bit of a set up. I just, I’ve only got about four videos up, but I set up a YouTube channel just on that. And it’s just got some trucks. I call them truck talks. They’re only about 10 minutes long right now. And I’m going to do some, I used to do Sunday sermons. You know, I’ve been working on a few things to talk about, but I’m not.
Not really the EX Jehovah witness. It’s more just if you’ve left some type of high control religion, and now you’ve left, when you’re looking for something else, how to not just spiral, how to find this out.
Danny de Hek: [00:48:23] So I had a people find you that what’s your YouTube channel. I’ll put notes on this. Yeah.
Darick Mitchell: [00:48:33] Yeah. So my YouTube channel is Heathen Humanist. My thing was, if I stepped down as a ministerial servant, I thought, you know, what, if they’re going to treat me like, well, he, then I’m just going to be one. So that’s what I do. So I’m, he’s in humanist on Twitter as well. And on Instagram and then it’s on a, I don’t do a whole lot on either of those.
I’m mainly just doing the videos on YouTube and then sharing links on them. So I spend also, there’s quite a few playlists on there that are other x-ray W’s that I’ve built kind of a playlist of, you know, if you have, if you have this question and you can look at these couple of videos and cause there’s some other reason I’m not in the EXJW’s, there’s so many out there.
Like you mentioned Lloyd Evans. He was so helpful. Cause it was just here’s the facts and do with it, what you will. He’s not, you know, he’s not really negative towards anyone unless they deserve it. And so I think his, his way of doing things has been in jail. It’s just, I have his witnesses to help me a lot when I first left.
Danny de Hek: [00:49:34] Ah, excellent mate. Well if you’re listening to this if you follow the links. Just, yeah, you’ll see. This goes to dehek.com, which is my website and I have show notes. So you can actually listen to all the words at the bottom of this. I’ll put all the contact details to Derek’s Twitter and a YouTube account.
So you can click on it if you can’t find them. But yeah, absolutely. It was mate. Thanks for being on here with us today. And That’s it.
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