Is it just me or does anyone else get an underlying sense of creepiness at Temple Square?

Even in my TBM days there was always something that always seemed a bit off that I just couldn't put my finger on. Like there was something just behind the façade you couldn't see but could sort of sense.

I dunno... its all such a huge mindf@#@ and messing with emotions. Had the opportunity to recently go to Temple Square again for the first time since my 'illumination'. All I got that time was just a cold hollow corporate vibe.

But I see photos of the grand temple there in SLC with all those sticky-up steeples or whatever they are, and it looks like some sort of evil place, like the castle of the poisonous potentate, straight from a sci-fi fantasy.

Being in the SLC area creeps me out but being on the Temple grounds does feel odd. I think for me it is the hypocrisy. The place oozes it. Then there are the moonie-esque but more assembly line wedding parties all standing outside....shudder. And The Mom standing by the model of the inside of the temple indoctrinating her small children. Ick. It all bothers me.

We went there because exmo husband had not been there since awakening.

The masonic symbols on the temple never helped ease the mind. Pyramids, moons and suns with faces, hand grasps, and the all-seeing-eye are certainly weird and disturbing to a young mind. There wasn't never a good explanation for why they were included on the temple. I haven't been there in almost forty years and I own a house near the resorts in LCC.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/04/2013 01:44PM by No Mo.

http://vigilantcitizen.com/sinistersites/sinister-sites-temple-square-utah/

Some see it as sinister as this Christian who studies and reports on the occult.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/04/2013 01:55PM by No Mo.

Actually, the entire Mormon thing is creepy when you step back away from it: The missionaries in their uniforms of white shirts, ties, short hair, freshly scrubbed look and backpacks with little nametags and creepy attempts to talk to you and "share a message". It is reminiscent of the brain-washed Moonies with the same creepy smile and handshakes. The creepy cookie cutter churches that have a sign that says "Visitor Welcome" as if you will not come out if you enter and the cultists entering that all dress the same. (I feel welcome when I enter an old, historic church in Europe or back East. I don't in a Mo Chapel.) The unwillingness to give the actual truth about the cult and sly answers to "answer the question that you should have asked and not what you asked". The lack of real knowledge by its membership of the doctrines and history of the cult. The way the members answer facts about Moism with "Oh, that is not true" in an indoctrinated, syrupy voice. The wink and a smile between members in excluding neighbors and their children don't accept their cult. The way that they address each other and their spouses as brother or sister instead of the socially accepted first name. (Referring your wife Sister Young as if Mormons actually hold women in high regard?) The whole religion is creepy.

That was the site I was going to post. I'm not into conspiracy theories but this article does bring up some interesting WTF questions. I didn't think temple square was creepy as a TBM but nowadays there is so much about it that unnerves me. Of course, I feel the same way about a lot of Mormons. I never thought about how odd and weird they were as a Mormon and although I still like some of them, most of them give me that same, unnerved feeling.

...there is an unseen security component which can be felt. The Temple grounds have a somewhat sophisticated surveillance system, like so many public, open-air venues. Most people sense it; and get the feeling, but yet not connect the dots, or realize they are being monitored in real time.

I was at temple square on Christmas day of last year early, early in the morning.

I was there by myself.

It WAS creepy.

There was canned music playing Christmas carols.....the kind that they play in malls and you get out of there fast because you are so tired of listening to it.

Then there was a man's voice preaching a Christmas sermon, in a very unconvincing tone of voice. He could have been talking about a post-Christmas sale --- no there would have been more animation in his voice if he had been talking about THAT.

It was kind of a monotone voice as if he were listlessly reading from a script.

TOTAL SILENCE would have been infinitely preferable.

I think there were two other people there on Temple Square at that hour of the morning.

At least the gates were open. They didn't try to keep you out. You could wander around Temple Square at 6:00 a.m. on Christmas morning if that is what you wanted to do.

I was trying to get that old time feeling.

I was looking for a reason -- or at least a feeling -- to believe in some transcendent reality -- even for a moment.

What I got was canned mall-music and a monotone unconvincing sermon.

I got out of there fast.

Maybe that was the whole point.

Lois

It's a little too well-manicured. That's a bit eerie, but what I find creepy is the people trying to start conversations with me in order to proselytize their religion. It's very much like walking past a Scientology building. Very, very clean and tidy with someone at the door calling out to see if I want to do a personality test. Yeah, right. Like I don't know the first thing about you people. Creepy, both churches.

It IS the Truman Show - a completely artificial, sanitized reality.

business partner visited Temple Square and found it weird, because guys in suits would come up to them and try to "shake your hand in a weird way".

I can thank Temple Square for bringing me to RfM; on a trip a few years ago we were going to swing through Utah, so I called my TBM bro' and thought we might have a nice family visit, see his new house, talk cars & kids etc., but the first thing he said was: "Hey, we can go to Temple Square." Luckily, we ended going through there on a Sunday and didn't meet up with him, but something about it ticked me off so much that as soon as I got I started looking for Mormon "Deep Doctrine" internet stuff and found....RfM!