Wikipedia says that mortification of the flesh has a Christian origination. Galations 5:24 says: "And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires".

This can mean merely denying oneself certain pleasures, such as permanently or temporarily abstaining (i.e. fasting), from meat, fish, alcoholic beverages, sexual relations, or an area of life that makes the person's spiritual life more difficult or burdensome.

It can also be practiced by choosing a simple or even impoverished lifestyle; this is often one reason many monastics of various religions take vows of poverty.

It is not uncommon for those who pratice extreme religious dedication to also engage in physical mortification, such as wearing a cilice, which is any device that will cause discomfort to the wearer. Cilices can take the form of say a hair shirt, gunny sack, and even  a barbed or spiked chain which is typically worn around the thigh.  


Here is a link to an article that  explains how an Opus Dei member wears a barbed cilice around her thigh for 2 hours nightly.  


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1308090/Why-does-Opus-Dei-member-Sarah-Cassidy-attach-cilice-leg-day.html



Any of these forms of mortification seem familiar?  


Mormonism may not require you to wear a gunny sack or hair shirt, but it certainly requires you to:

1.  Feel pain  when fasting- perhaps in similitude to that suffered by Jesus.  
2.  Go on a mission, in which you sacrifice your education and career.  One corporate interviewer asked me why I didn't graduate college until I was 24.  Trying to explain a mission to a corporate interviewer never goes over well.  
3.  Been in the military and tried to explain those Mormon garments?  Why are you wearing that goofy (hairy shirt) underwear?
4.  Won't you agree that paying tithing forced you into an impoverished lifestyle?  In my case, my parents could afford tithing, but not braces for me or my siblings, And vacations were few and far between.  


Any other Mormon cilices that you'd like to comment on?

I am a self-flagellum.

A tangential point: I don't think it is correct to ascribe self-mortification to early Christianity. The practice inheres in most forms of eremetic, and some types of cenobitic, monasticism; and such practices existed in the Eastern Mediterranean and Palestine well before Christ.

Also, there are plenty of other religions that teach pain as a means of gaining access to God or the supernatural. Among those are many of the Indian sects, most forms of Shamanism, and some of the indigenous religions in broader Southeast Asia. There are numerous places today where, on the holy days, you can see worshipers self-flagellate and even stab knives and shafts through their faces and other body parts.

The bottom line, I think, is that for many peoples getting close to God is a pain in the ass.

Great information!

In Galatians 5:24, Paul was just encouraging every one to get tattoos or mortify their flesh as it was called back then. But Christians, as they always do, turned it into something entirely religiously whack-O when all Paul was trying to do was drum up some business for his side line of inking.

Recreational sex is a lot more fun than flaggilation I assure you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!