One of the first things that made me doubt the truthfulness of the church was when I got my partriarchal blessing. I remember thinking how personal it was and he must have some angel whispering it into his ear. Then some of my friends who went to the same patriarch started saying what was in theirs, and they were eerily similar to mine. Some parts were exactly the same. Which made me wonder if he was just giving out cookie cutter blessings. Kind of ruined the whole unique specialness of it all. I don't think I was supposed to read theirs, but we didn't know at the time.

Which made me think, does anybody know the history of these blessings? When were they introduced and why? Mine made me think that I was going to die young and sort of freaked me out.

The first blessings were given by the church patriarch, who was Joseph Smith, Sr.

Until early in the 20th century, patriarchs charged a fee for giving a blessing. Two dollars was typical. It was an important source of income for patriarchs.

Here's one set of articles on the subject:

http://www.mrm.org/patriarchal-blessings

Note that Joseph Smith's patriarchal blessing, given to him by his father (the first church patriarch), says that he will "subdue his enemies, enjoy his posterity to the latest generation, and "stand on the earth" to witness the Second Coming." Oops.

I've had TBMs tell me that he'll still do all those things in his resurrected body. Sigh.

Those Mormons, they have an answer for everything, even the very speeeeshul and blessed promises in a patriarchal blessing. I bet they lay awake at night thinking of their next response.