As a member I really loved “feeling the spirit”, which I experienced as the typical warm, peaceful, tingly feeling that is talked about so much. For me these feelings were strong and very pleasurable. Looking back I realize that I read my scriptures, listened to LDS music and went to church not just to be obedient, but because I was seeking to feel the spirit. I was good at it, too. I felt it almost every day. It was like a drug and I was addicted. I didn’t realize until recently how big of a part this played in my cog-dis. I didn’t want to “loose the spirit”, like I was warned would happen if I read anti-Mormon literature, and for me personally this was a big deal. Of course, I now know these feelings have nothing to do with whether something is true.

I left the church ten years ago and am now an atheist, but I still love those feelings. I now know how to get them in a wider variety of ways than before such as good music, sunrises, touching movies, etc.

The weird and interesting thing to me is that I still get these feelings strongly from religious things. In fact, religious things can give me those feeling just as strongly as they ever could. It is like digging up feelings in my mind from an old romantic relationship.

This topic is on my mind today because a couple of nights ago I watched the manger scene from Mr. Kruger’s Christmas, and I outright cried. (If you don’t know what I am talking about it is on YouTube.) That scene has always done that to me, and I admit that I watched it for the express reason of wanting to feel those feelings, even though I have no belief in the reality of the Jesus story.

How normal is this? Personally, I don’t think it is abnormal, but I have no idea how common it is for atheists like myself. I am at the extreme end of the scale on this?

For those of you out there who really loved and sought those feeling as a member, how about now? Do you actively seek them? How strong are the feelings now compared to before? Do religious things still evoke those feelings?

I would really like to better understand how I fit into the spectrum of what others on this board experience, especially atheists, so I hope many of you will share. Thanks.

I always wondered what was wrong with me that I never felt what other people were experiencing.

Hmmmm.....interesting. Sorry if you felt it was somehow your fault. Maybe it is based on brain chemistry that is beyond our control.

I'm posting this anonymously:


There is a 'perfect' bustline and whenever I encountered one, I was moved by the spirit. ...speechless, nerve ends tingling, beads of perspiration, shortness of breath... "Sweet Christ!" I would mumble.

Lol..I think you may have forgotten to post anonymously here, but like a true comedian - that's what makes this funny. Well done my friend. Well done.

I too have been very moved at a perfect bustline, even doubly so. I would umble "God bless America" or "Holy ****" being moved by the spirit. It doesn't matter how old I get, I am always impressed by the endowments of the spirits when gazing upon the truly endowed.

What you fellows are missing is that it is supposed to be YOUR breast that swells when moved by the spirit.

In 8th grade, Winston Allen theorized to the class that only women had breast bones.

And with regard to 'swelling', you were half right in your summation.

I blush.

I understand your crying at a manger scene from a touching Christmas movie. I am also sometimes moved to tears by the thought of a caring being in this sometimes hostile world, or the promise of being reunited with loved ones in a happier place. I don't necessarily think it has anything to do with the "spirit" but more of a longing from within. I think we are all longing for something, and when we have an experience that reminds us of what we are longing for, it hits an emotional nerve.

Interesting, heartbroken, and I agree. It is all triggered by a sense of loss. It could be the loss of our parents, the loss of our first love, the loss of dreams, loss of belief, loss of childish wonder, loss of innocence, or a combination.

I'm like Greyfort. I never felt it. I would cry during testimonies, because I always cry in sympathy with other people's tears. I still cry when little children cry, or when someone is sad or hurt, or when animals are suffering. I despise hunters. I can't kill even the more insignificant little bug, because it has a little brain, and nervous system, and little legs to run and save its little life. People can't create even a flicker of life, for all their scientific knowledge.

At testimony meetings, my tears are just a knee-jerk reaction, like reacting to people yawning. I have never been moved by non-reality.

However, poetry and fiction moves me. Maybe it's because Mormonism always had that bottom line--the almighty dollar--as its primary goal.

I cry at the opera, at the beauty and talent and the emotions expressed. A fine musical performance makes me cry. Christmas movies--yes! Movies about families and children--even commercials about families and children and pets. I think most of us share these feelings; otherwise, they wouldn't make all those films. Often--like the Mormons--they try too hard, and I scoff at them, but there are still tears in my eyes.

C2NR, are you getting old? That will do it.

I never felt them...not once.

I probably experience about as much warm tingling feeling as before.

What I don't have to deal with now is the chasing after the spirit of God. You know, that feeling that when it is absent something is wrong with you or God has abandoned you or whatever. As a Mormon, I was desperately seeking revelations for every major life decision, and when they didn't come I was paralyzed and unable to make decisions about anything. We often just have to move forward on our best available judgement and deal with the consequences later.

The inability to be comfortable with God's frequent absence from life was a huge detriment to my spiritual life. If the expectation is that you need to be like the total cons who are receiving the word from God all the time--or so they say--then it's just hard on an honest seeker, who is just not getting there all the time.

I used to feel the spirit before I left the church. Or at least, I thought I did. I have come to realize today that it was just me wanting it so much that it happened. I remember reading somewhere that you can cause a feeling to happen just by wanting it intensely enough. I don't know psychology well enough to remember the term of what I read, but I have only been moved to tears twice since those times. Both were at the funerals of my Mother and Father. I don't believe in an afterlife any more, but both of them suffered a lot physically before they passed, and the talks about them being in a better place and no longer in pain hit an emotional nerve for me. I wish it were all true, because it is so much nicer of an image to have of my Mom and Dad. To this day, when I think back on it, even though I don't believe in it, it brings those feelings back.

It was a great Dopamine High.