After I left the Mormon church I still believed in God. I had the warm fuzzies and everything, and I have always fully embraced my emotions. When I went through a long period of legitimate PTSD, I still believed as much as I ever had and I never tried to avoid how I felt about things, but somehow the feelings still went away.

As much as I tried, I just did not get any religious experiences. If the warm fuzzy emotions are caused by a higher diety...why would it stop based on my emotional and psychological state? Well that is what pretty much completely opened up my mind. I did a lot of thinking for a long time after that realization, and now I have learned what it truly means to work through a problem logically. I have never viewed emotions the same way since.

Did anyone have a similar experience?

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/22/2015 04:54PM by Carrots Tomatoes and Radishes.

I guess not

I want to add something here CTR, but I don’t know if I can or not. Talking about having ‘feelings’ towards things can be a confusing subject here, because the chunch threw out so much confusion surrounding the concept of feelings.

No, I don’t think warm fuzzy feelings are an indicator of truth, or of some holy ghost, and I don’t think feelings come from a higher power. I know some activities can give me warm fuzzies, like when I play music. However, similar to what you noticed when you went through PTSD, when I’ve become depressed, I’ve also lost those feelings even when I’ve played music, which alarmed me because I knew I ought to be feeling great, yet I wasn’t. In a way, that’s how I knew I was depressed.

The only comment I can really make regarding this issue of feelings and Mormonism is that somebody can’t tell you about what and about when you should be having feelings. And when you do get those feelings, somebody shouldn’t be inserting what that means or telling you why you’re having them like the church does. Feelings are personal, and they come and go for different reasons in different people. People get warm fuzzies over different things from each other, and at different times; it’s an individual thing.

That’s one (among many) of the bad things the church did to people IMO. It hijacked their natural feelings and inserted an interpretation that it somehow meant some holy ghost was giving you a confirmation that something was true, usually regarding the church or some aspect of it. No, those feelings just meant you felt good at the moment, that’s all. I can ask my buddies why we feel so good playing music, and we’ll all say ‘because music is fun.’ But maybe it’s also being around the guys that is fun, or maybe it’s having people enjoy our songs, and sometimes maybe it is just because I do like music a lot; but it doesn’t mean music is god, or truth, or divinely guided. It just means I was happy in that moment, and it could have been a combination of different and varying factors that made me feel that way at that particular moment.

I don’t really understand this directive from Mormonism that feelings are to be used to determine answers to questions. That’s messed up to me; feelings are just random things that happen or don’t, but you don’t ask your feelings a question and then wait for an answer. That’s messed up and irrational to me. Feelings just happen, you don't ask them to happen or converse with them to test for answers to things.

Also, I think having feelings is normal. Mormonism is the thing that isn't normal. You’re feelings are your own; some church shouldn’t be telling you what to feel, or what those feelings mean. That’s a personal thing. The cult just tried to hijack those feelings and use them to manipulate you. Feelings are not bad once you ditch the weird Mormon cencept about them. It’s people telling you what those feelings mean or should be used for that’s not good. It’s personal what your feelings about things are, and it differs from person to person. Your feelings are like your own private thoughts in a way, but different at the same time. Own them, and don’t give them away to a church.

There, I tried to say something about it. You’re thread deserved some sort of response. :)

Reminds me of the posts about Heartsell and Bonneville Communications, employed by the mo church to manufacture the Spirit, because Jesus and JS can't be trusted to do it themselves.

My experiences after leaving Mormonism haven't been quite like yours. However, the fact that people from all religions and belief systems, as well as agnostics and atheists, can feel "warm fuzzies"--and that these feeling can be based on contradictory things--is proof enough that warm fuzzies are of no objective value.

I've had warm fuzzies when hearing certain kinds of music and when studying concepts like the Theory of Evolution. All these feelings indicate is that someone has connected deeply with something outside themselves. Whether or not there is a God or spiritual force is certainly not proved by feelings or disproved by a lack thereof.

At church I felt nothing. When I think about a god or Jesus I feel nothing.
No feelings, no problems ;-)

The "warm and fuzzies" are a very *in the moment* kinda thing I think.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/25/2015 05:58AM by Slumbering Minstrel.