The temple freaked me out and I can't understand how anyone could like it or understand it. I never got a straight answer as to what it all meant, just that "it pertains to this life." Great - that means a lot!

I'm curious to know if any of you found a lot of meaning in the temple and actually liked attending? Please explain how you made sense of it.

I didn't like going.
Was always wondering what it was that people thought was so wonderful. Always wondering what it was that they found so peaceful about it.

The first time I went was in the 70's. I didn't go again until after the changes were made. In my head I could still hear the threats and remember pantomiming slitting my throat and disemboweling myself. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I remember thinking they couldn't possibly mean that! I've never known anyone who had their throat slit. Does that mean nobody ever tells? Or, is it just an empty threat, a fear tactic?

That stayed with me and came back to me everytime I went to the temple.

The end was always such a let down. You go through all that stuff, to be flushed into a room that felt void of emotion. There was nothing that felt good or inspiring. Everyone looked tired and depressed. There was nothing to do there. Nobody to talk to. Just a bunch of nothing. So that's what heaven is like? What a yawn.

I never did washing and anointings ever again. I felt traumatized by doing my own. I was completely blindsided. I had no idea what was coming next, that alone traumatized me. I'm a quiet shy person. I don't like being touched. That whole experience went against every cell in my body. I would have ran, but I had nowhere to run to. There were 300 people showing up to a party for me in about 3 hours. I was getting married in less than an hour. I was mad as hell at my husband for not telling me what I was in for. I guess he was afraid of getting his throat slit.


What was the point of all this? It felt like a club initiation to me. A club I didn't even want to belong to. I felt like I had no choice. I was born into it, I was never given an option. It wasn't until much later in my life I learned that I had just gone through the Mason rituals, and was now more of a Mason than a mormon.

I only went once - to the SL Temple - to be baptized for the dead as a teenager. I recall looking at the font with the oxen and everything being very white and thinking, Wow -- I really am in this very holy place where God and Jesus hang out. But I was only 14. By 16 I was questioning and by 19 I was pretty much done.

That was in the 70s. Had I married in the temple, it would have been in the late 70s/early 80s when the proceedings still had the oaths, penalties and naked touching, and when there was no internet and no information whatsoever about what went on in there.

I was a quiet and intelligent young woman and rather shy. And, I was always appalled at the thought of a stranger touching me. I was nearly 50 before I even agreed to try a massage! When I earned my advanced degree I was in my 30s. Friends gave me a gift of a day at Elizabeth Arden which included, among other things, my choice of a massage or a hair styling. I chose the hair styling as I still couldn't stand the thought of a stranger touching me.

Like Mia, when I was married at age 20 I would have been totally freaked out if I had arrived at this "holy place" and been made to strip down, put on a poncho and be touched by a stranger. Especially if it were my wedding day -- no place to run or hide and 200 guests waiting for me.

Fortunately, my parents weren't all that religious. I fell in love with a no-mo and was married in a civil ceremony. Of course, more than one guest at our reception told me that it will be really special when we go to the temple to be sealed. Now that I know the truth of what goes on there, I still shudder to think of the bullet I dodged.

This brings back some memories. 14 years old, 1978, Ogden temple. Doing the sealing thing.

It really weirded me out and I thought to myself, "what did I do to deserve this?" I was always embarrassed to be a member of the church and this was the icing on the cake.

I lost a lot of respect for my parents when I saw them in their temple attire.

No I NEVER LIKED IT!! The way God cast out eve but gives adam a CHOICE! THE BLOOD OATHES were Especially disturbing. The whole time I was doing it I Kept thinking; This is not of God! God wouldnt ask me to do this! And to be made to do it though family presser W/o warning IS CRUEL! I remember looking around at all the crystal & gold trimmed furniture; all the people in white w/their steppford smiles and thinking I dont care how "holy" this looks, THIS IS FR@+%$NG WIERD!!!

Cowardly lion Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> > all the people in white w/their
> steppford smiles and thinking I dont care how
> "holy" this looks, THIS IS FR@+%$NG WIERD!!!


I remember the people there were something out of Rosemary's Baby. Evil but in a good way.

I NEVER liked it. I hated the rituals. The poncho and the naked touching were creepy. There are lots of inconsistencies in the temple ceremony. If it wasn't frightening it was boring. Temple clothes look ridiculous. I hated that there were no windows. I find any outdoor setting to be more beautiful than the celestial room. My wife and I didn't like going and being separated the whole time - we felt more edified watching a movie together.

All that being said. I was very TBM and thought that there was a defect with me because I didn't like the temple. So I forced myself to go many, many times thinking I had to prove to god I was worthy to feel the 'spirit' in the temple like everyone else claimed to do. Needless to say, I never recieved that.

What a creepy cult.

I was told that that is the place you will feel the spirit the most. I never did. I also felt that God was absent. It's crazy to think that people can swear that is where God is and some can feel the opposite.

I've heard several people reference the naked touching. Did the initiatory ceremony change at some point as well? I went to the temple sometime after 2000 and it was just wearing that "shield" and they touched my head I think. I may be remembering it incorrectly though.

Humiliatine to wear a revealing outfit that turned to gauze when wet and have to strip naked in front of an old matron and wear a tiny hand towel down a long hall to the shower room.

I couldn't understand how modesty was a commandment of God in my LDS home but nudity and lewdness were required in God's holy temple.

pics or it didn't happen.

I'd describe my experience the exact same way. It happened.

Good 'ole Joe must have had such a hard on making all this stuff up.

I went through in mid 2000's. I was so brainwashed that I convinced myself of how "special" the sessions were. I never fasted before going, but always felt guilty for not"preparing myself spiritually." By the time we'd get to the celestial room, I'd be kicking myself for not having pondered enough about whatever question I wanted answered. My DH would sit with me for a few minutes. Finally, my stomach would growl and remind me that Steak 'n Shake was waiting with delicious fries and chocolate malts. I'd inevitably leave with no answers. And I would chalk it up to my unpreparedness to receive answers. Haha!

Oh well. It's a nice idea to think of sitting in a deity's living room. But I would never have a tacky chandelier like that in my house! Especially in the small temples!

I must be the odd ball here because I actually liked the temple and was even a temple worker in my YSA days. Of course, I went through after 1990, so I missed the blood oaths. I probably would have been freaked out by it. I didn't even know about it until a news program on Mormons back in the Hinckley days and an ex Mormon talked about it and also demonstrated slitting her throat. I found it disturbing and confirmed its truth with my mom. It was a big red flag for me as eternal temple ordinances are not supposed to change in my mind at least. Then they changed the initiatory. I eventually found the endowment to be boring and napped during the movie. I always did find the prayer circle to be weird. And the clothes are ridiculous. I hated having to be veiled and find it very unequal. I actually loved the initiatory. It was my favorite part, but I also don't have hang ups with women seeing me naked. As I was a single TBM for so long, I had a hard time with couple sealings, but I did like child sealings.

Did I like it? No.

Did I understand it? Never.

But as a CES employee I got used to it. It was a great place to zone out on days when my AC wasn't working well. The standing and sitting got annoying but was necessary to keep circulation going. Have done some serious daydreaming in temples.

down our boundaries. We've shared the stories before of being baptized for the dead. For a very PRIVATE, extremely modest person, the treatment by the old bitches in the temple was horrible and the fact I couldn't cover myself with even a towel until I had stripped naked.

Then the endowment, washing and anointing. I had been warned about the W&A. I HAD to get through the temple to be able to leave. Once I knew they had no big wonderful secret--it was much easier to walk away.

I have very inactive siblings who have not been through the temple and every now and then--like when the Brigham City temple opened--my siblings will get a little sucked back in. I tell them, "I know what goes on in there. It ISN'T WHAT YOU IMAGINE." I drive by some of these buildings and think what a farce it all is.

I TRIED liking going to the temple--after all, I had to be perfect to save my gay husband. I made it back 4 or 5 times. My ex still is irritated that I wouldn't go with him on bishopric nights--while I was "worthy" and he was not. It has been over 20 years since I set foot in a temple. I found my last TR a few years back and I carry it in my wallet. I get a big kick out of it.

WHAT?? When you did baptism for the dead you had to strip in front of someone??

take off the wet baptism outfit before they would give us a towel. It happened to me several times. Others on the board over the years have also shared the same experience.

I remember reading about how the jumpers would be darn near see-through, but never having to undress in front of someone. Just when you thought you heard it all. Did you get to at least wear panties and a bra? I fully pictured more of a gym locker room where you could change and be as private as you want.

I was floored when Richard shared the full nudity of the washing and anointing when he went through.

The ladies said it might have colored threads or waist elastic which could invalidate the baptisms.

The old lady made each girl strip naked and put the sopping suit in a bucket before she'd give them a towel to hold around their bodies from the tiled closet room down the hall to the dressing room.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/18/2013 02:34PM by Cheryl.

How embarrassing! Nope, it's not a cult at all. Wow...just...wow. Asking sexual questions in a closed room by non-professional male and being naked in the temple. I am thoroughly creeped out.

that is horrifying!

I've always had an interest in esoteric stuff and before I went I had some knowledge of Freemasonry, Kabbalah, etc. This was the only place in TSCC where any of that existed and I wasn't alarmed by it since I had come to realize that there is a long tradition of ritual of this nature in many cultures.

That said, I don't now see the temple ceremony as comparable to other bodies of esoteric knowledge in terms of its complexity, creativity, etc.

One thing that never sat right with me...I remember GBH saying how he learned something every time he went. I never could really figure out what he was learning. There didn't seem to be a whole lot of lessons to be learned. You learn that man answers to god and god answers to man, and somehow there was an entire civilization kicking around for satan to mess with, and you make a bunch of covenants you can't possibly keep and then learn that you're in satan's power when you can't keep them.

I remember other people telling me that they learned something new every time too! I didn't learn any of what you described. I learned NOTHING!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/18/2013 10:12PM by ehb.

And that was one of them. These little nuggets of mormon speak always fell like clunkers; they were kind of WTF moments, complete non sequiturs just dropped in, and that was one of them:"I learn something new every time I go to the temple," Uh, what, Jim? Met with blank looks from the non mormons, but the mormons dumbly nodded their heads like marionettes. So weird.

Another time it was that his mission in South America was the best two years of his life, said up in front of the choir.

Just gotta drop those required moisms, no matter how inappropriate to the subject at hand, which should have been related to choral music, one would think...

In the 8 years since I moved to the west, among Mormons, I've met only one normal seeming Mormon, who doesn't have that glazed look, or the RM demeanor... you know all those awkward little ways they have of revealing themselves. Only one.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/18/2013 10:47PM by serena.

I resigned from the LDS church because I looked up the LDS temple ceremonies and wording of promises. I felt that God's church should respect free will, and to throw people into such strange ceremonies where they were expected to say yes (often before a high pressure wedding or mission) with no time to think over in advance whether they wanted to participate in these ceremonies, was immoral. People aren't given any time to think and they are discouraged from looking up the ceremonies in advance. LDS members used to be essentially threatened with death with that throat slitting gesture if they tell their family members before they go in what it will be like.

To me, it seems psychologically abusive and fundamentally immoral to make people believe they are in a clean-cut, tie wearing church, and then throw them into a weird cultish ceremony with huge amounts of peer pressure to comply. I think people are forced to split off their scared feelings in order to deal with it and obey the peer pressure, and this creates a tendency towards a bipolar personality in many church members, where their negetive feelings are split off and hidden in a dark corner of their minds.

I remember going through last about 8 years ago... and thought it was actually not bad, but I hated garments and found it odd that women were all of a sudden annointing me when they are not supposed to be allowed to give blessings... so weird.

And when I was a teen, I do remember being able to wear panties and a bra, but I'm fairly sure they had to be given to me to wear, I could not bring my own... b/c of the thread color issue. But I don't remember ever being fully naked in front of anyone... they had locker rooms.

Overall, I hated how hypocritical it felt, especially after I realized I got married by doing a funny handshake and my dad who didn't have a TR didn't get to see me get married. Should've just done it in Vegas. There's about as much God there as there is in the temple LOL.

I would bet god's name is invoked far more often and fervently in vegas than in any temple period! "Oh god please let me win this one please lord oh please god!" Haha

I was 14 and on a baptism trip to the Oakland temple. First thing, they brought our whole group, boys, girls and adults into a big room. I remember a lady saying we need someone to pass out towels to the girls. I said as softly as I could, "I'll do it". The only people who heard me was the kid sitting next to me and our teachers quorum advisor sitting next to him. Both snickered.

I was a very gung ho convert, so I went to the temple and did not think it was weird. I just honestly felt special, like I was in on the big secret. The throat slashing stuff freaked me out a bit, but since I was not BIC I just assumed it was a metaphor. After I left, I did lots of reading including about the Dannites. Gave me a whole new perspective on those punishments.

I remember baptisms for the dead. I just kept wondering, Do these people really want to be baptized? I also wondered, if they are going to baptize people anyway, why can't I do what other kids my age do? Why can't I drink coke? See anything other than a G rated movie? Listen to music I like? They are just going to baptize us when we die anyway! I never understood it.