You may have missed this recent news about how cult membership affects happiness:

https://www.thecolonnews.com/single-post/2018/04/11/CultMembersHappiest

From the article:

"What surprised most conference-goers - and, as they admitted, the researchers themselves - was what appeared to be the most certain source of happiness among those they interviewed. It was not anything that most people assume might bring happiness: love, money, power, free time, family, or anything similar. No, the most consistently happy people, and with the highest degree of happiness, were members of cults. Not just any cults, of course. Those in political cults were usually among the most UNhappy people, since that kind of cult is usually fighting for some kind of political power which is always beyond their reach, leading to constant despair and frustration. It is rather the members of religious cults who seem to have found the key to happiness."



Of course, when you do a little fact checking (I hope Hie is enjoying his usual round of afternoon golf...), you find that there is no Baywatch University (c'mon!) and no mention of a Happiness conference to be found on Google.

And then when you do a little pushing the links on the cited site (always wanted to get cite & site next to each other!) you find:

"The Colon is a place for people of all nations, nationalities, races, ethnicities, colors, religions, sexual preferences and orientations, ages, political leanings, geography, history, chemistry, astronomy, math, recess...Okay, I've lost my train of thought here. The Colon is a satirical thinktank that strives to push the envelope with humor, puns, and overall silliness. We work to be a place with clean, if sometimes irreverent humor. By day, we are but mild-mannered superheroes and superheroines. At night, we take off the masks and sit at our computers and phones, spewing out the nonsense to which you have now subjected yourself."

My kind of people!!!

Yup. As a source for news, Colon is a bit rank. What good thing cometh out of Santa Barbara?

More generally, though, thanks for the insights regarding the cited site.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/2018 06:46PM by Lot's Wife.

I was indeed chasing a little white ball around a field, and punishing it with sticks. For some odd reason, I think that's fun ;)

Clearly you don't need me for checking up on things, though. The old dog has things well in hand.

And on a humorous note...The Colon?
We all know what comes out of colons...:)

It had me going until the thought occurred to me that it reads a lot like an article from the Onion. Bone-dry humor!

The main reason given for happiness in cults is the same reason Mormons give by following the prophet and apostles in everything. My brother told me before I left Mormonism that the thinking has already been done for us, so it makes life very easy. He is saying that from a doctor's perspective that makes $700,000 a year!

If our objective is to make money and get a professional job to work in a 40 to 50 hour a week job with vacation and holidays, Mormonism does create smart, happy, and successful people. These people have usually been raised in the LDS church for generations and have learned how to obtain the professional jobs that provide the money to produce the wealth to be happy. Why? Because they have the money to spend on vacations, holidays, weekends, at nights, and so forth, with their "free time". Who wouldn't be happy to have the money to do fun things on their free time? See? Because they are disciplined to be slaves to the world in jobs, they learn to feel disciplined and in control of their lives. To believe they are going to the celestial kingdom to live as families is icing on the cake. It is not their main motivation in life.

However, those born in poverty and try to fit into the cult are miserable. They feel like they can never measure up.

People who are reading the scriptures and trying to please God can use their brain and see all the foolishness, and eventually, they leave, no matter how they feel about the prayers about the book of Mormon or true church. The facts override their feelings and they become very unhappy for the time and effort they put into Mormonism.

It is a very tough recovery process.

For me, I went to college and got really good grades, got the professional job, wife, four beautiful children, and so forth, but I was miserable because I was trying to follow what the LDS scriptures, prophets, and apostles taught. I was very successful, but miserable, because no matter what I did, I could not get out of debt. Finally, I took a $30,000 early retirement package from my fabulous career at IBM and got another job. It was the exact amount I needed to finally get out of debt (except my house), according to the will of God spoken through the apostles and prophets.

The next thing that happened is unexplainable. The roof needed to be repaired because it started leaking, a strong wind blew down my 30 foot tree in the back yard, the water heater leaked and damaged the wooden floor in my kitchen, and a zillion other things broke. Over a three month period, it required me to take out loans for $20,000 on a credit line and credit cards, and being totally depressed, I was in debt again. What happened?

Then something unusual happened. My parents came to my house 500 miles away and gave me a gift for $20,000 dollars, and they didn't even know about the situation, and they never in my life ever gave me money. When I bought my house, they did not help me with the down payment.

After being born in Mormonism, and my heritage goes back to families in the days of Joseph Smith, I finally just opened my mind that the Mormon prophet and apostles *perhaps* were not what they claimed to be. What else but God could give me the $20,000 to get me out of debt? I couldn't do it by myself. Impossible! But I reasoned it could be a coincidence, so I didn't react. It was time to use my brain. I decided to "study the opposition" in Anti-Mormon literature that I had always obediently stayed away from. Once my mind was open to research the facts, my life-long testimony was destroyed in only one month.

A few months later, I asked my name to be removed from the church, and it took nearly nine months to get approval because I was the Bishop in the ward and a 100% committed Mormon.

So there I give you three perspectives of the cult life of Mormonism. First is my brother who loves it because he is a doctor who made a lot of money and didn't have to think about theology.

Second is my experience in a "professional" Mormon life that caused unhappiness because the Church was not viewed as a social club of friends that it is. I wanted to sincerely know the truth but was never satisfied with the answers in the LDS scriptures or the Bible. I never felt I figured out the truth "in the details", no matter how much I tried. Mormonism is simply a bunch of friends who love to sit around and share their testimony about Santa Claus. And that would be fine to gather around such fantasies if we know it is false and we are just in Mormonism for our family's social needs. I couldn't do that as a Bishop, and I thought I had to be a good example for Jesus for all the deceived souls.

The third is those raised in poverty or broken lives that do not fit into the Mormon image of a happy life of success in the world. They never feel good enough based on the stupid ideas that are taught in Mormonism that have nothing to do with eternal life or the truth about God. For example, the temple is a fraud and has nothing to do with "eternal marriage" of "eternal families" or worse, the idea of physical immoral glorified bodies creating soul bodies forever is insane. Give me a break. Wouldn't a physical body create a physical body? The whole religion is nonsense filled with totally irrational ideas.

See? But once we realize we are gathering around Santa Claus ideas, who know the ideas are not a threat to anyone. If we can Mormonism is viewed as a social club to be with our family of LDS believers, no one is hurt, except we may feel it is a waste of time, and we could be doing something much more enjoyable as a family by joining some kind of club that matches our interests. It can be quite a drag to gather around Santa Claus ideas, but at least, it is not hurting anyone if they think it makes them happy, like my brothers and sisters. They are never going to change. I would never have changed had my parents not given me $20,000 dollars at just the right time to do the Anti-Mormon research and use my brain.

However, I made the mistake that the "devil was going to hurt me" if my name remained on church records, which is a bunch of crap. I should have asked the Stake President to release me because of person problems that were interfering with my calling as a Bishop. In short, I would have lied to protect what I had.

If I knew what I know today I would have never asked my name to be removed from the church because my heritage goes all the way back to 1830. Dumb idea! I lost all of my living relatives--hundreds of them that I knew--in 9 months, plus all the friendships developed in the ward. It was a really stupid idea created by paranoid Christians who also gather around harmless Santa Claus ideas that make them happy because they don't have to think or decide what they believe about theology.

So, Anon the Great--

--you would have kept your name in the church rosters, and would have put up with all the Mormon stalking and harassment?

--What happened to your children, and your wife, when you resigned?

--You wrote: "I lost all of my living relatives--hundreds of them that I knew--in 9 months, plus all the friendships developed in the ward."

I lost all of my Mormon friends and relatives, just like you did. My family on my mother's side goes back to two of JS's original church leaders. On my father's side, my ancestors were close neighbors of Joseph Smith. My cousins and I were close, and spent the summers together, and planned annual reunions together. Now, they have no contact with me, as though I didn't exist. My "friendly" Mormon neighbors, who's children grew up with mine, and played together at my house, look the other way, if they see me.

This is not "happiness". This is not love. Not even close. Even when I was part of it all, the relationships were false. No one loved me for me. It was all contingent on my obedience to the cult, my high standing in a GA family, and my willingness to fulfill the calling of organist and pianist and teacher and den mother, bla-bla.

"Social club?" Don't make me laugh. I have REAL relationships, now.