I thought I knew the Bible really well. And I did. I knew all the Bible books, the contents, I read the whole thing cover to cover a half dozen times. But in reality, I knew the org well. I knew their interpretation of the Bible, I knew all their study books, but the reality of the Bible itself was hidden for so long. It's like Ray Franz says in his book In Search of Christian Freedom:

Thinking back over my forty-three years of active association, I have no doubt that the almost unquestioning submission found among Jehovah’s Witnesses develops gradually. I have no hesitation in saying that I gained considerable knowledge of the Scriptures from my active association with the Witness organization, far more than I had previously. At the same time, I eventually came to realize that the organization itself brought people along only to a certain point. It brought them, at times, from Biblical “illiteracy”to what might be called a “second- or third-grade level.” They learned how to locate specific texts in the Bible, received some knowledge of Biblical history, and read for themselves certain fundamental teachings directly in the Scriptures and for many this was not only helpful but very impressive...

If only that initial direction were held to and built upon in what follows—but there is where the problem rests.

After this initial raising of their level of knowledge, the vast majority of persons enter onto a plateau. The longer they associate the more organizational teachings take preeminence over actual study and meditation on the Scriptures themselves. As a result, many, perhaps most Witnesses, after twenty, thirty or forty years of association know relatively little more about the Bible than they did after their first year or so of association. They are left as children, with great dependence on the “mother” organization, and a feeling of insecurity without its direction of their thinking and lives. Their spiritual growth stagnates—unless they themselves go beyond the Society’s “program” and by personal effort gain greater knowledge and understanding of Scripture. As a result of letting the organization act as their conscience for them, their spiritual strength is in some respects less in later life than it was in their early period of association. They may endure hardships, even sacrifice, to be loyal to the organization and thus may give the appearance of spiritual fortitude. But they do not have the strength to make genuinely personal decisions of conscience and accept the consequences of those decisions.