My sister in law, who converted to mormonism a year ago, recently went through the temple. She did the whole she-bang along with her husband who has always been mormon but who had not taken out his endowments before, and then they did the sealings with their kids and all. I have heard many of you say that the temple experience was rather silly and unsettling to say the least. I am wondering, however, if anyone felt spiritually moved and uplifted by the ceremony at the time they went through. Do anyone remember actually enjoying the experience? I am just wondering if it is possible that this was a good experience for her or if she is most likely weirded out but afraid to say so.

She probably had both good and weird experiences. I went through for the first time when they still had the death oaths, minister, etc., and I felt somewhat uplifted by it.

You kind of make it what it is by your attitude. There were parts that just flat out bothered me, and parts I thought were kind of cool. And spiritual.

Over the years, the more I thought about it, the more the whole thing weirded me out. But at first, it was a net positive.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/26/2011 12:09AM by madiran.

times but that may not have been their actual experience.

We were told how great the temple was. How great the spirit was. How beautiful the interior was. When we went through and didn't have these experiences then we thought something was wrong with us. At least that is what happened with me. I told people it was great. Or people who did have a good time had convinced themselves before they even went that it would be spiritual. I "felt the spirit" when I went to Catholic mass yesterday. It was beautiful, it reminded me of my childhood. Point is; I don't think anyone really had any kind of spiritual experience.

I wasn't that creeped out, but was disappointed. The interior was not that special to me. I fell asleep during the ceremony.

Madiran and Bingoe4, were either of you converts? My SIL was raised a Catholic and so, I would think, the temple rituals would fall kind of flat. However, I think you are right that she might try and convince herself that it was a good experience, especially because she likes the whole "eternal family" thing. I don't think she has processed that, because her husband was sealed to HIS family, she will be spending eternity with our mother-in-law as well.haha. Thanks for your responses. I have always wondered if there were people who enjoyed going to the temple

I was born in the church. It was pounded into my head from my youth that the temple was about the coolest thing on earth.

With a Catholic background, I would think that the temple rituals would fall flat. Hopefully she will give you an honest answer. Most of us said it was great when it was really o.k. or so-so.

There is a lot to the point made that if you didn't like it you thought it was just you. My wife confided in me early on that she never did get anything out of the temple. Bless her heart.

I want to ask her about it but I wasn't sure if it was something she was allowed to talk about. I know there are certain things she can't discuss about the temple but is she allowed to say how she felt about it?

The whole mormon church was kinda flat after the pageantry of Catholicism. The temple was more disappointing the 2nd time when I realized it was the SAME THING over and over and over.

I used to love the temple so much I would go to the first session around 6am. I also thought there were parts that were so weird and stange I could not wrap my mind around it. (The green apron and death oaths.) Somehow you take in what is beautiful, and there is alot that is beautiful, and try to quiet the dissonance. It's entirely possible your sister is coping with the dissonance and denying how shaken she might be by the weirdness because some aspects of it are very meaningful to her.

The idea of being sealed to your family is one of those ideas you can bask in and feel deeply meaningful. It's the hook, in my opinion, that keeps many from admitting they feel unsettled by other parts of the temple ceremonies.

I generally liked the temple, but my favorite was doing Baptisms and Sealings. The Endowments was freaky the first time I went though, but I also went many times after that and even was a veil worker a few times. It is true that the temple weirded me out occasion if I thought about it too much, and it is true that there was always a hint of 'not quite right' but for the most part it was okay.

My wife totally loved going to the temple.

I "got to do" sealings once. Someone didn't show up, so they pulled me aside and sent my husband on through the session. I got to be "sealed" MANY, MANY times to some odd duck who made eyes at me the entire time. Made me feel like my own marriage had NO significance. Why they didn't have my husband do the sealings with me. I NEVER WENT BACK after that time.

Let me say--I was RELIEVED. I was so afraid of what was going to go on in there and the secrecy doesn't help. I hate to be in a situation where I don't have some sense of control and when everyone else knows what is going to happen and you are not "in on the joke"--it is very unnerving. I was relieved it wasn't as bad as I thought.

The ONLY thing beautiful about the temple for me was when I got married. Otherwise, I thought it was bizarre. I went a total of 4 or 5 times. I was someone who was going to be a perfect temple attender and my ex had to force me to go every time I went--and after I refused to go anymore, we argued endlessly about it.

NOW--when I toured the temples before I ever went through, I felt they were peaceful. Thing is--those who tour the temples have no idea what bizarre rituals take place there. To be able to be sealed to your family, first you have to participate in foolishness.

I've said before that my ex's last partner--his brother was a convert for 30 years. He and his wife FINALLY got to the temple--they went through the temple ONCE and never went back to the LDS church. He said the temple was--can't think of the word he used right now--but it has to do with stupid.

I only had one good experience in the temple. It was when I was about 22 or so, and it was my first trip to the temple. I was a convert of about a year...

I was watching some single women being baptized proxylike, and the way they looked when they came out of the water was so beautiful that I even have a hard time putting it into words today. The way their hair fell, being dressed in white, I don't know what it was. I saw something about them that gave me a overwhelming love for humanity and god.

I tried to describe it to my Bishop on the drive home, and he shut me down. Made me question my love at first, but I decided that I must not have explained it right, because there was nothing but purity in what I felt.

Every temple experience after that was a pile of shit...

Doing someone elses ancestory,(tho I know now was demon
impersonating the dead for the dead are concious of nothing
the bible says), and a witness also saw him but no one else
not even the veil workers who saw me looking behind the back
row throught the endowment session, kind of worried for me
as if I was having some hallucination as some mad person
to be cautious of comming through the hand shake veil.
the woman who also saw him, I had just done sealings with
her dead ancestor who was a murderer, and the lights
exploded in the sealing room and she warned me he had
not accepted the gospel but the ordinance still went ahead

It was a supernatural day, not scary to me as I thrived
on the dead only to realize I was a warlock anyway
as a member of the occult lds church, and hoped that
the god of mormonism, the god of kolob would grant me
eternity as gods and mother fucking sex with many wifes.

I always knew that when satin said to eve now your eyes
are opened and you can become gods knowing good and evil
and mormonism was just that becomming gods of the occult.
Tho I tried to dismiss the possibility it was a devils church
from some good experiences, it wasnt until my friends,
a bishop and his wife, being sealed up to ancestors
were so excited to see them in the sealing room, was
bouncing around on their chairs pointing and telling
every one look there they are, and both giggled with delight
while no one else saw them, it was creepy that to see
a bishop and wife get on some ego trip over it, like
retarded little children seeing ghosts..

I kind of knew it all along that the only spirits in
the temple were demons even if so sacred and special
to many, mormonism was the greatest deciever of the
max brightness satin could produce the false light
by feelings manifested. But the bible says its not
about feelings but conviction in the word of the bible
and to not accept any other angel preaching anyother
message and be it that church is accursed, meaning
OCCULT and FALSE.....

all those sacred feelings does not proove the church is
true. Infact the first vision of joe smith seeing only
one personage and 8 years later, saying he saw two personages
as if that wasnt important enough in the first place to
mention, and the people back then went along with the first
vision and today they convert people by FEELING of the first
vision as two personages, such a holy ghost I dont want
to deny if true, but its pretty messed up including the
feelings in the temple can be very deceptive and I was
one who could see the dead..

When out of mormonism, terminated for exposing nazi mormons
that I was silenced and threatened eitherway, I was attacked
by the mormon destroying angel I call the MOTHMAN until
I learnt of the blood of christ and cast it out, if I wanted
to keep believing in christ but not mormonism once not
hold the priesthood that was robbing god of priesthood anyway
according to seven day aventist that I attend now and believe
the sealing up of the holyghost and true saturday sabbath
the original 4th commandment to remember the 7th day and
keep it holy is my protection, and the teachings that
the dead are concious of nothing, have had not one more
supernatural experience of seeing DEAD PEOPLE..

ITS ALL DEMONIC and MASONARY to the KILT.
FLEE FROM the OCCULT/CULT OF Mormonism and their so called
dead spirits nothing but demons in discuise.

larry.

Sure, I had "good" experiences in the temple. Sometimes it was relaxing, a get-away.
It's soft, clean, quiet. Usually not crowded ;)
Almost anyone would admit not "getting" all the script.
But "good" for me meant not really worrying about it and letting it slide.
At times when it mattered, like my own marriage or when I was direly depressed, the temple was a dud.
I was distressed that I could never tell my wife my new name, because I am ONLY to reveal it at a "certain place in the temple" (the veil), and she'll never be escorting me to the veil or receiving me at the veil. To this day she doesn't know, but I know hers from escorting her to the veil for our wedding.

Ok OK this is supposed to be about good experiences.

I admit it was fun when I was YSA and went with a girl friend, (not girlfriend). They made us the witness couple (the only couple that gets to actually be together during the endowment ceremony). It was kinda flirty.
Another time my buddy got his slipper caught in the escalator and I had to punch the emergency stop button. Maintenance had to rip it free.
So my "good" times were when it just seemed like a normal, open, unhaunted almost secular place to me.
I never had a goosebumps experience.
It either just didn't bother me or it did.

Wow, that's some crazy free verse there, Larry...

When I saw my husband in that stupid bakers cap - I had a wtf moment in my head! I looked around and really wanted to get up and leave, but alas peer pressure and thinking it must be just me kept me in my seat. The last time I went through the temple their was a spanish lady bolting through the sealing room crying hysterically. The little old temple matron was chasing her down. Looking back now; I'd have to say the temple was the creepiest, and dumbest thing I have ever participated in. I am embarrassed that it is now on the internet and my friends know that I went through such a stupid ritual.

I kinda thought the first part of the video (the Creation) was pretty to look at. Sort of a PBS Nature special on LSD... make that LDS ;)

Other than that, not a one.

I grew up Catholic and joined the LDS church for my husband. I was used to all of the fancy catholic cathedrals and pageantry and I did not find my temple experiences spiritual. If anything I spent the whole time saying what the heck did I get myself into???? What was I thinking???? Why isn't everyone laughing at these crazy getups they've got us in? I couldn't even look at my husband without freaking out...he looked so silly. I felt stressed out, weirded out and embarrassed the whole time...spiritual experience....um not for me.

It was the late 1970's (Donny Osmond was in the session and being sealed ahead of us) Three of our children were sealed to us. We were so excited. The ceremonial dress, the new names, actually making an oath that we'll be killed if we reveal the secrets-death oaths, the garments, the minister dressed in black, the washing and annointing our naked bodies, the pay lay ale ... It was all sick, crazy and confusing. When we left the temple we both agreed we must have missed something because it was way too freaky. We went through about 4 times during that same week in 1978. Though we had TR's we never went back.

As a teen back in the '70s I did baptisms for the dead. The experience was strange. As soon as I was dunked and brought up out of the water by one man, another would rattle off the baptismal prayer again - on behalf of the next person on the list, as fast as he could. It was a cycle of "buttabuttabuttabutta" - dunk, "buttabuttabuttabutta" - dunk that went on and on. It was happening so fast I couldn't catch my breath, and the chlorine was too strong it burned my eyes. Afterward, I started wondering why they didn't just read off the whole list of names of those being 'baptised' all in ONE prayer, and then dunk me ONCE? It would have been much more efficient.

I had big expectations years later, when they revealed my "temple name" to me as an adult. I thought it would be done by some special means of revelation. Nope. Every male that day was given the same name. It was written on a placard attached to the wall, and the man 'revealing' it to me simply lifted a flap covering the name, and told me to remember it for the rest of my life. I remember some old geezer doing something with oil near my wee-wee. But I blanked it out.

The pantomime of throat-slashing and disembowelment freaked me out the first time (in 1982). But I was a sheeple and went along with it.

The movie they played, every time I went through the temple, was so boring that most everyone fell asleep through it.

I went through a number of temples in Utah during the early '80s. I remember seeing expensive church organs in them, organs that have a lot of stops that would never be used to play funereal music. When I expressed disgust that money was wasted, I was told that 'the lord knows what he is doing and there may be a purpose for such an organ in the future.' Riiiiight. I was an enthusiastic young organst and jealous that we couldn't get such a cool organ in our own ward building, but no expense was spared in temples.

Whenever in a morg temple I felt the pressure to just go along with it and "don't ask questions." It was never a pleasant experience. I only went when I felt I "had to."

I loved the temple. In fact, going to the temple and wrapping my mind around the deep symbolism and all the possible meanings was so wonderful that it alone kept me in the church for 20 years. I still am involved with symbology and esoteric religions because symbols speak to me more than words ever could.

However, I reached the point where I could not longer answer the temple recommend interview questions honestly regarding whether the top 15 were "prophets, seers and revelators". I knew they were just men trying their best but nothing like Biblical prophets. That was when I knew I could no longer go to the temple, even though I actually love it.

I liked when that actor who was in Cincinnati WKRP was in it. That was fun.

I remember a good chuckle when my friend and I visited the Salt Lake Temple and we went to a live session. First off it was hard NOT to laugh when Adam and Eve are grey and wrinkled! LOL! When the "minister" walked in the room my friend leaned over to me and said "Uh oh... I think somebody's lost." She thought he was an elderly patron who had wandered into the wrong room!