Posted by:
rt
(
)
Date: November 22, 2014 08:00AM
Cattibree Wrote:
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> I am quite curious on the methods of mind control
> all of you true ex-mormons had to endure.
For me, it began when I was 2 years old and my parents converted to Mormonism. As long as I can remember, everything in our house, our family, our life, our thinking and our behaviour revolved around "the church" and "the gospel".
Everything - I'll let that sink in for starters.
Let me give you an example: we would be watching the news and some natural disater would be covered. This was God preaching to evil mankind in the last days. Or a corruption scandal: just as foretold in the Book of Mormon, the world will come undone because of "secret combinations".
When a rainbow would appear, my mom used to say that we would have another year yet before Jesus would come back and destroy the evil world, because this was promised to Noah.
Of course, I was taught that God created the world and evolution was all false. Entropy and the second law of dynamics and other stuff a 10-year old knows nothing about (nor his parents, obviously). Scientists know nothing, prophets know everything.
When I was away at summer camp, my dad would erase my cassette tapes with evil pop music recorded from the radio.
When my 9-year old sister collected bottles in the swimming pool all summer long and refused to pay tithing over the proceeds, she was sent to her room with some tithing-scripture to read and ponder, while being made aware how disappointed her mom was - but of course, it would be her choice.
When a catholic priest would be observed in colourful holy robes, that would be dissed as priestcraft, these guys are in it for the money only and belong to the great whore of the earth. Only the Mormon priesthood was the true power of God.
I could tell you hundreds of examples like that. Nothing much in themselves, but over the years a steady flow of manipulation through guilt, shaming, ridiculing, forcing and reinforcing - all in a context of the world coming to an end soon and everything not-Mormon dangerous and evil.
This kind of upbringing leaves you completely isolated from, and afraid of the world around you without even knowing it. Everything I did and thought revolved around the church: the music I listened to, the books I read, the friends I had, what I would do in my spare time, my educational choices, my professional choices, my wife, my underwear, my personal grooming, the movies and TV-programmes I would see, the way I interpreted the world around me, the way I made decisions, the way I thought about others, the way I treated extended family members, everything, everything tainted by the cancer that is Mormonism.
And then you leave the church and are left with nothing. No friends, no family, no outlook on life, no purpose, no clue how to behave in social situations, no idea what to do with your free time, no hobbies, no identity, no skills to deal with ambiguity, uncertainty and doubt, no hope, no future.
So you start from scratch and reclaim your life. Hapless, helpless, stunted, naive, clueless, embarrasing - but this time it's OK. You learn and you grow and experience a freedom you never thought possible, an incredible connection to the entire human family and the intensely liberating realization that "I don't know" is as good an answer as any.
I wouldn't wish the experience on my worst enemy (if I had one) but it has made me who I am today and I wouldn't want to have missed it for the world. I met my wife in church and I am very happy with my little exmo family.
I only wish it dawned on us 15 years earlier. We could have had so much more fun hiking through Norway and cuddling up in a tent at night without the unnatural restraint and the immense feelings of guilt and shame.
My wife would have finished her education, have a career and we would probably have had our kids like 10 years later.
Our financial position would have been better. We would have seen more of the world besides Europe where we grew up and the western US (with a stop-over in St. Louis to drive up to Nauvoo).
We would have had college friends and a normal relationship with our extended families. We would have been less alone.
So there's my story. It's anecdotal and emotional and incoherent but I hope it gives you an idea of the damage the Mormon cult does to ordinary people.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/22/2014 08:04AM by rt.