Yesterday, I bought a used manual (Published for the Use of College Students in the Church Educational System)
entitled, "Living Prophets for a Living Church." (THIS PUBLICATION HAS BEEN APPROVED
BY THE YOUTH AND YOUNG ADULT CORRELATION COMMITTEE
OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS) 1974

A (very small) Partial List of the Topics:

"Your Safety Is in Following the Word of the Living Prophet" by Harold B. Lee
"The Gates of Hell Will Not Prevail Against Church Members Who Follow the Word of the Living Prophet" by Harold B. Lee
"The Lord Will Not Permit the President of the Church to Lead the Church Astray" by Wilford Woodruff
"Prophet Will Not Apostatize" by Joseph F. Smith
"The Lord Will Never Let His Mouthpiece Lead the Church Astray" by Marion G. Romney
"God Will Never Permit Him (the Prophet) to lead Us Astray" by Harold B. Lee
"The First Presidency and United Voice of Twelve Will Not Lead Saints Astray" by Joseph Fielding Smith
"God Will Not Suffer His Church to Be Led by a Fallen Prophet" by Delbert L. Stapley
"Look to the Presidency" by Joseph Smith
"What the First Presidency Says Is Scripture" by Marion G. Romney
"The Presidency, The Source of Light and Truth" by Marion G. Romney
"The Promise to Those Who Look to the First Presidency and Follow-" by Joseph Fielding Smith
"I Would Rather Have the Living Oracles (Prophet) than All the Writings in the Books" by Wilford Woodruff
"Why the Scriptures of the Past Are Not Sufficient for Us Today" by Harold B. Lee
"When the Prophet Interprets, We Follow" by J. Reuben Clark, Jr.
"Prophets Define the Gospel for Us" by Marion G. Romney
"Those Who Criticize Our Leaders Are Showing Signs of Spiritual Sickness" by Harold B. Lee
"Those Who Criticize Are Assuming an Indefensible Position" by Marion G. Romney
"When You hear a Man Speak Against the Authorities-Know he Is Sliding Downhill" by John Taylor
"The Lord has Not Given the Prerogative to the Church Membership to Censure and Condemn His Servants" by George Q. Cannon
"What the Presidency Say as a Presidency Is What the Lord Would Say if He Were Here" by Marion G. Romney


As you can gather, from the above, TSCC puts its so-called Prophet on at least equal footing with the Bible & Jesus.
I also believe it could be reasonably argued, TSCC places its so-called Prophet above both the Bible & Jesus in authority.
I believe this may be TSCC's most powerful tactic for lifelong enslavement of its adherents,
at least those who truly believe these things.

Wow, that's a lot of brainwashing all in one place.

"Wow" is right. If you changed these to read as though they were speaking of the leadership of any other organization or church, the average TBM would agree that any these were the work of a frightening, controlling, and dangerous organization. Yet, leave it as it is--touting the infallibility of TSCC leadership--and your average TBM won't think twice. Is that "cognitive dissonace" or what?

Just replace them all with scientologist names and see what TBM's reaction would be

"Is the church true or isn't it?"

I got that a few times in response to an inconvenient question...

The following story is taken from the section, "I WOULD RATHER HAVE THE LIVING ORACLES THAN ALL THE WRITINGS IN THE BOOKS (i.e. Bible, BOM, etc.).
I find it to be particularly insightful in that I believe Jos Smith & Brigham Young realized the necessity
of undermining the primacy of the Bible, as well as their own BOM and D&C,
before they could seize complete control over the minds of their followers.
(Wilford Woodruff in CR, Oct. 1897, pp. 22-23. Caps added. Also, as quoted by Ezra Taft Benson in CR, Oct. 1963, p.17.)

"I will refer to a certain meeting I attended in the town of Kirtland in my early days.
At that meeting some remarks were made that have been made here today,
with regard to the living oracles and with regard to the written word of God.
The same principle was presented, although not as extensively as it has been here,
when a leading man in the Church got up and talked upon the subject, and said:
"You have got the word of God before you here in the Bible, Book of Mormon,
and Doctrine and Covenants, you have the written word of God, and you who give revelations
should give revelations according to those books, as what is written in those books
is the word of God. We should confine ourselves to them."

When he concluded, Brother Joseph turned to Brother Brigham Young and said,
"Brother Brigham I want you to take the stand and tell us your views with regard
to the written oracles and the written word of God." Brother Brigham took the stand,
and he took the Bible, and laid it down; he took the Book of Mormon, and laid it down;
and he took the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, and laid it down before him, and he said:
"There is the written word of God to us, concerning the work of God
from the beginning of the world, almost, to our day."

"And now," said he, "when compared with the living oracles those books are NOTHING to me;
those books do not convey the word of God direct to us now, as do the words of a Prophet
or a man bearing the Holy priesthood in our day and generation.
I WOULD RATHER HAVE THE LIVING ORACLES THAN ALL THE WRITING IN THE BOOKS."
....When he was through, Brother Joseph said to the congregation, "BROTHER BRIGHAM
HAS TOLD YOU THE WORD OF THE LORD, AND HE HAS TOLD YOU THE TRUTH."

...The Bible is all right, the Book of Mormon is all right, the Doctrine and Covenants is all right,
and they proclaim the work of God and the word of God in the earth in this day and generation
until the coming of the Son of Man; but the Holy Priesthood is not confined particularly to those books,
that is, it did not cease when those books were made.".

Some knowledge will damage your testimony.