For example, my father having a phd and teaching college courses through his life falls for secret handshakes. What the f#ck? But he did do death oaths as well so maybe he is scared deep down. Just a thought i had on how educated people don't see through this but the f#ck up badass can? It's an upside down world. And it still blows my mind that i was around cult members throughout most my life without even realizing it. F#ckin A, was always comfortable around my friends that had no religion though. That should have given me a clue that my family was actually abnormal.

Some people find comfort in an all-encompassing religious patriarchy. I suspect a deep-seated psychological need drives the attraction.

3X Wrote:
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> Some people find comfort in an all-encompassing
> religious patriarchy. I suspect a deep-seated
> psychological need drives the attraction.

I see. For me it wasn't a comfort at all, but a false one and a hindering unhealthy one.

I'm astonished that my PHD attorney son is so in love with SMITH-ISM --to the point he'd throw away his mom, his dad, and his four brothers for the love of secret handshakes.

But, conversely, another astonishing thing is that someone raised in the whole gig can see the falseness. I'm always amazed when BICs have the personal power to climb out of that horrible lie. You climbed out of the slime pit--at tremendous cost, but you did it. :)



My new product:

"SECRET HANDSHAKE HAND SANITIZER"
(for clean hands and a clean heart)

Kathleen nli Wrote:
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> I'm astonished that my PHD attorney son is so in
> love with SMITH-ISM --to the point he'd throw away
> his mom, his dad, and his four brothers for the
> love of secret handshakes.
>
> But, conversely, another astonishing thing is that
> someone raised in the whole gig can see the
> falseness. I'm always amazed when BICs have the
> personal power to climb out of that horrible lie.
> You climbed out of the slime pit--at tremendous
> cost, but you did it. :)
>
>
>
> My new product:
>
> "SECRET HANDSHAKE HAND SANITIZER"
> (for clean hands and a clean heart)

It is one hell of a mental hole to climb out of and in my case physical as well. And its an insidious hole that never lets go and you can never stop climbing it seems to get clear of it all. And when you get to the top of the hole you have no clue what to do with yourself but at least you aren't doing death oaths and secret handshakes and that is all you know. Once you are out of the hole you have to learn how to live real life from scratch and develop real social skills and it is not easy at all but i was told it would not be easy from the get go. I like that hand sanitizer thing that is pretty good. The cure for the handshake club is hand sanitizer. The most insidious thing about that religion is that it pretends to be a regular religion on the surface but it isn't. It is a living hell with handshakes at the core. I never did the handshake thing myself i backed out before i went down that crazy road.

That's interesting, Kathleen.

Mormons who study law eventually gain the critical thinking skills to be able to deconstruct Mormonism. I've heard of it happening with other Mormons. Met a few. And it happened that way with me when I enrolled in law school. That was when I studied my way out of the cult.

That your attorney son is the one who stayed "in," makes me wonder what is it about the cult that holds him? Because if he was really using his critical thinking skills he picked up in grad school, he'd already have deciphered his way out of it.

Maybe it's a social connection that keeps him there? His spouse? Is he a 'cultural Mormon' perhaps? Just wondering what makes him tick as a practicing attorney, unless it's motivated by love (spouse) or money (connections.)

No secret at all, a couple scoops vanilla ice cream in the blender with a little milk, and good healthy squirt of Hershey's Chocolate syrup.


Oh, wait.......you said "handshakes".....

Chicken N. Backpacks Wrote:
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> No secret at all, a couple scoops vanilla ice
> cream in the blender with a little milk, and good
> healthy squirt of Hershey's Chocolate syrup.
>
>
> Oh, wait.......you said "handshakes".....

Just a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine down.

Rituals serve to connect a concept (often an abstract or especially "unbelievable" one) to a physical act. By concentrating on the physical part of the ritual, the concept the ritual surrounds seems more "real," more physical. Over time, learning the rote of the ritual fuses the concept and the ritual, tying them together in a way that often ends any questioning or feeling of "strangeness" regarding the concept. And gives more importance to the ritual than the concept.

"...people are more likely to turn to rituals when they face situations where the outcome is important and uncertain and beyond their control."

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-rituals-work/

So while there are some benefits to rituals (like secret handshakes), organizations (and people) can also impose them to relax participants in "weird" or stress-inducing situations, and to numb them to just how weird the stuff they're doing actually is.

Smith pulled the temple rituals from freemasonry, which had a long time to come up with effective rituals that kept members ensconced in their cult. He stole a proven-effective method of manipulating people, and did very well with it. It still works today on lots of people...but not all :)

Holy sh#t you just blew my mind hie. So what is the unbelievable concept? Getting into a celestial kingdom?

Well, yeah...

And Adam & Eve. And "We will go down." And promising everything you'll ever do or earn to the church. And (now gone) making death gestures to show how your life will be taken if you reveal the secret handshakes. And on and on...:)

Why to they fall for it? They lack the insight and maturity to think clearly on the topic.

Cheryl Wrote:
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> Why to they fall for it? They lack the insight and
> maturity to think clearly on the topic.

I will have to watch that maybe its on youtube.

Except that everyone who revealed what goes on in the temple are still alive, after all of that throat slashing too!!
Hmmm, I wonder?
I don’t like shaking hands with strangers anyway; I know how some germs are spread. I never liked all of the hand shaking on Sundays even, I know, I think too literally.
I made sure to never touch my nose, mouth or eyes on Sundays, until I washed my hands,
Creepier when the person is behind a curtain and you can’t see them, imagine how much dried up snot, and worse ( you know what Im talking about, LOL) you come in contact with.

Look up Bohemian Grove or Skull & Bones. Severely weird societiss which the elite of the USA are involved in. They are not just the invention of conspiracy theorists, they are real.

Some Name Wrote:
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> Look up Bohemian Grove or Skull & Bones. Severely
> weird societiss which the elite of the USA are
> involved in. They are not just the invention of
> conspiracy theorists, they are real.

I know about those other groups.

...and they can go f#ck themselves for all i care.

Most smart people don’t.

And there’s different types of smart. A person can be brilliant in some areas and stupid in others. If someone fell for the secret handshakes they’re like the rest of us on the planet - a little stupid.

jay Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Most smart people don’t.
>
> And there’s different types of smart. A person
> can be brilliant in some areas and stupid in
> others. If someone fell for the secret handshakes
> they’re like the rest of us on the planet - a
> little stupid.

I see your point but it's hard for me to believe that someone with a PHD didn't say to themselves "ok this is dumbing me down and completely retarded."

Those of us that went through were blindsided. Think about this: First time temple patrons are ambushed by having "guides" that sit on both sides of the first timer. Well, that's pretty intimidating isn't it? It actively discourages the first timer from following his/her natural instinct to bolt.

I had my father on one side and my BP on the other. I had nowhere to go when things got weird in the temple ritual.

And what bothered me the most?

I made a covenant to avoid levity, light mindedness and loud laughter. To me TSCC had just sucked away my personality and my individuality.

So many things didn't make any sense. For example, the true order of prayer. Were we really supposed to pray like that? If not, why weren't members praying that way in church?

Also, why did the temple feel less spiritual than SM? I struggled with that one for years.

messygoop Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Those of us that went through were blindsided.
> Think about this: First time temple patrons are
> ambushed by having "guides" that sit on both sides
> of the first timer. Well, that's pretty
> intimidating isn't it? It actively discourages the
> first timer from following his/her natural
> instinct to bolt.
>
> I had my father on one side and my BP on the
> other. I had nowhere to go when things got weird
> in the temple ritual.
>
> And what bothered me the most?
>
> I made a covenant to avoid levity, light
> mindedness and loud laughter. To me TSCC had just
> sucked away my personality and my individuality.
>
> So many things didn't make any sense. For example,
> the true order of prayer. Were we really supposed
> to pray like that? If not, why weren't members
> praying that way in church?
>
> Also, why did the temple feel less spiritual than
> SM? I struggled with that one for years.

I forgot about the blindsided part but still why not bolt after and throw the garments in the trash or something. I guess that would be hard as well. And do you really covanent to never laugh out loud and have lightmindedness outside of the temple? I am a jokester so that temple would have completely destroyed me even worse. What is levity i will have to look that up.

For me it was as if I was being commanded to become a different person. I considered myself to be witty and funny. I was appalled that I was expected to be cold sober and not be outwardly joyful. The temple experience was similar to receiving a lobotomy.

Good lord it really would have destroyed me then if i went through.

messygoop Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The temple experience was similar to
> receiving a lobotomy.

Yeah, and I would much rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.

I think ole sleazy Joey felt the same way and he laughed all the way to his many women, hotel, fine horses, property, mayor's office, and temple which were all made possible by his fine con-job, a con-job that even surprised him when people fell for it (so he kept on rollin' along making his way in life without having to push that hated plow and call himself a farmer)

He did not care in the least that these "blessings" of his came from defrauding, deceit, and lying that God himself talked to him on a regular basis.

Now, I'm not the sharpest cookie on the plate but I'm not the dumbest either, and when I attended the temple for the first time it was both the goofiest, the weirdest and least "spiritual" get-together I had ever witnessed. I felt like a third-grader in some dumb initiation tree ceremony. I was waiting for the knives to be passed so we could seal the deal with cuts and our own blood.

And, low and behold the blood deal did come through.....it was just gorier than I had imagined. I was asked to cut my own throat if I did such and such----oh yeah, you bet I will surely promise with my whole heart and soul to do just that....or NOT.

The temple ceremony was certainly one of the goofiest and sneaky parts of Mormonism that helped me put 2 and 2 together and get CULT.

One of my happiest days was sticking it to this evil organization by saying, "I happily resign from something that is both loony and ever so evil. From this point on I will do what I can to bring light to the world by sharing how wonderful it is to forget my secret handshakes."

Seeing the temple ceremony on youtube helped me put 2 and 2 together as well. It was just all the other sh#t i was put through before seeing the video that was hard as f#ck to get out of my head and recover from and try to be a some what normal human of society(still working on it). I was heavily brainwashed since as far as i can remember and i became the family reject early on as well never to be a part of their in-club with jesus. I took the beatings for the family and it was bullsh#t. I had friends die over this religion bullsh#t, it's a deadly religion in many ways in my opinion.

Their handshakes bring all tha boyz
to the yaaaarrrrrddd...