I had a thought spawned by amyjo's thread yesterday. The thing the Mormon experience does for you is disabuse you of a lifetime of cultural conditioning. You go through an identity crisis where you don't even know who you are anymore, and then things settle down and a new you emerges.

This is much like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly. There are lots of butterflies in RfM along with caterpillars in various stages of metamorphosis.

If I had never encountered (brrrr) Mormonism, I would probably be stuck in some other kind of culturally-imposed conditioning. Instead, Mormonism gave me wings.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/20/2015 02:11PM by bradley.

That's right. I'm a god-damned clawed, obsidian butterfly. It's pretty bad-ass. :D

But on a serious note, I recommend fellow exmos read up on Jame's Marcia's Theory of Identities.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/20/2015 02:13PM by Itzpapalotl.

Nice thought, bradley...
But I'd personally prefer to think of it as *leaving* mormonism that gave me wings. Not mormonism itself.

I'd *like* to think that had I been indoctrinated into some other nonsensical "cultural conditioning," observed facts would still have led me to overthrow it, and get my wings.
I can't be sure of that, of course.
So perhaps mormonism being so clearly and demonstrably false was needed to "kick-start" my rational thinking. Interesting :)

It is an interesting thought: If you had been born into a cult that was not quite so crazy as Mormonism, would you still have realized it was a cult and escaped?

I think I am one of those caterpillars who harbors wasp larvae waiting to chew their way out.

Stripping away cultural and self-imposed conditioning is a lifetime work. Just like we (most of us! :) ) bathe everyday, so we need to daily observe our thoughts and behaviors, and assess how they are influenced by various forms of overt and covert conditioning, and then find ways to remove them, to release and maintain our genuine selves.

Leaving Mormonism is instructive and very beneficial, but this alone is usually not enough to realize your true self. Leaving Moism can and should be an excellent object lesson that we have all been conditioned from birth, and that we need to be ever vigilant that we don't continue in conditioning which binds us, even against our better judgment, to others' agendas.

It's a big job.

Damn sticky chrysalis. Can't open wings.

Good topic.

Then there's the social conditioning needed to be good citizens in our society. My children were more indoctrinated and culturally conditioned through the public secular school system, than they were at church. Especially by their college years, when it was unleashed on them by atheist professors and the godless culture as a "new norm."

I don't like leaving one set of larvae for another. I hope to be free to be myself, but there's always that set of rules somewhere that requires us to conform to 'something.' Whether it was Mormonism, where we were easily classified as "over-conformists," along with the rest of observing Mormons. To whatever we ascribe to now as our roles in life.

The chrysalis is how I see myself at times. I'm still trying to break free from all that came before. Maybe it is enough to accept all that was before as a part of who I am, and will always be - at least in this lifetime.

But remember, once you become a "butterfly" your eyes are opened to the larger world. Butterflies have 12,000 eyes that are part of their "compound eyes," that enables them to see in all directions, kind of like a prism refracts light.

So it would be neat to have that kind of vision of the butterfly, someday, to see the world through such a looking glass.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/21/2015 10:23AM by amyjo.

Thanks for this. Up until now I assumed I was fairy. At least that's what some people called me from time to time.