http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/schedules/

Temple quote:
"Temples are places of personal revelation. When I have been weighed down by a problem or a difficulty, I have gone to the House of the Lord with a prayer in my heart for answers. The answers have come in clear and unmistakable ways."
—Ezra Taft Benson


My visits to the temple included:
1. sleepiness
2. boredom
3. my ears usually went red and my head started feeling achy and internal pressure
4. that What-The-FLIP-feeling --
a. why are we wearing this ridiculous garb? A green apron? Serious? Don't we usually wear these in the kitchen? Where's those big oven mitts?
b. why so caught up on performing secret handshakes and close embraces with people I'd rather not touch with a 10 meter cattleprod?
c. what's with touching my upper ass anyway with your "holy oil"? Hands off dirtbag!
d. so we actually put names in a box, generically pray on that box and somehow God is supposed to know what's in there? What if someone put an M&M wrapper in there? Would Mars, Inc.'s stock go up?
5. offense to sensibilities
a. forcing women to cover their faces just never felt good
b. playing Mormon Twister in a prayer circle -- boy-girl-boy-girl...elbow-shoulder-elbow-shoulder...ya do the hokie pokie and you turn yourself around...
c. bowing my head and saying "yes" always felt so 1984ish.
d. repetition of prayer always sounded like chanting and I felt as if my thoughts were being replaced by Mr. Prayercirclecguy's thoughts
6. personal boundaries always felt torn down from start to finish (temple recommend interview to finishing a session and noticing how I had a definite mark in my forehead....)


Temples are a great place for personal revelation -- it's been revealed to me that I flippin' hate going there. I physically don't feel good there. I don't feel like men & women are equal as I see Peter Priesthood standing there next to his faceless, formless property, er, wife. I rarely could get anything out of the ceremony other than the belief that GOD is the most anal retentive being in all of fiction. And all the handshakes, tithing, being Chief Janitor every few weeks, reading only faith-promoting propaganda, teaching only faith-promoting propaganda, being constantly confused trying to make logical sense out of Momronism...it's just maddening.....argh! I think my senses should be trusted, but on the other hand the Church years ago came into my mind like a rhinoceros and told me how I couldn't trust my own wisdom and had to trust theirs instead.....Man I feel confused...And I'm still LDS, just a bit dysfunctional. Thanks for letting me rant.

For me, the most peaceful place or time is on the temple grounds or in the locker room after the sessions. The rest of it is rush,rush,rush. The weird feelings you try to ignore, the concentration on remembering your lines so you don't hold things up. In the Celestial room you feel like you only have a minute or two to try to get that answer to your prayer before being hustled out.

No, sitting in the chapel before a session and outside before you enter the temple is the most spiritual place. The rest is just too busy for the spirit to get a prompting in edgewise.

And quite frankly, if you tell anyone that you received an answer in the temple that does not fall into line with what the prophet guy has said regarding perfect obedience to his counsel, it is invalid. And if you received such an answer outside the temnple, then it is from the devil.

It is easier, faster and cheaper to just read the ensign and agree with what ever it says- even if it conrtradicts your old issues of the ensign you have tucked away and followed unerringly.

If you had the power of discernment, you'd know this... :)

I have had no *great* reflective, philosophical experiences in the temple. It was always too busy. too formal
I have had great experiences in the grounds... laying back on the grass while a robin sat in the tree and - a couple of thousand feet above, a jet passes over on route to Gatwick Airport.
these are the sort of things that make you think - that give your your *muse* - that give you your *revelations*

not the sterile, bustle of the temple

I received assurance that I had to get divorced at the Tennessee River Bluff Temple. I determined I had to make a major move at the Orange Beach White Sands Temple. The most powerful revelation ever--the one where I knew I needed to resign my cult membership came to me at Our Lady of Bridal Veil Falls. Soon after, the revelation on going back to college in my late 40s was received as I knelt to pray--er, I mean, sat to reflect while riding down the sacred mountain on the Sundance scenic lift.

Funny, how that happens--how knowledge about your life and assurances that you are doing the right thing, come to you when you stop and go someplace quiet and peaceful, where you can get out of yourself a little and reflect. Some people need to pay thousands of dollars a year to a cult to find a place to go do that. Others of us are more frugal with our money and drive up a canyon or to a beach. Doesn't matter, you get the exact same result.

And so is any Mormon that claims the temple gives you "clear", unmistakable personal revelations. They are just parroting party lines to appear "in" and "with it".

And where, pray tell, can you actually find a quiet spot to sit in and listen for revelations when those dour and rude patrons and matrons can't shuffle you out of the celestial room fast enough when you are done with the endowments? Hmmmm?

Oh, and I like the idea these people teach that if you don't receive any special revelations in the temple, then something must be wrong with you.

*SNORT!

As I was sitting in the terrestrial room and reflecting on the temple experience up to that point (this was daughter's wedding day) I had a personal revelation that it was all a bunch of BS and a relic from the past that proved it was just a cult all along. The next time I bowed my head and muttered NO.
That was the only true revelation I've ever received in the temple.
That will do.

I could never understand about personal revelation in the temple,on numerous ocassions I trotted off to a quiet room near the sealing rooms,only to be followed and told I was'nt allowed there,was there some other secret they had'nt told me about,agree totallly with others,rush,rush,rush,how (if it were possible)are you supposed to get personal revelation,for me it was in the celestial room that I got revelation that it was all soooooo untrue.

I was secretly distressed, after all the incredible build-up you get before you go to the temple for the first time. . .I thought it was just w e i r d!

I didn't get any woozy spiritual feelings or enlightenment, or even run into any deceased relatives.

I thought that the "washing and anointing" was creepy and knew that I wasn't SUPPOSED to think that.

I got pissed off at the curtain because they wouldn't even let me TRY to get the lines right by myself. I had been paying very close attention and was pretty sure I had them down pat. I was told NOT to argue with temple workers!

And then everyone comes up to you afterwards and gushes, "Wasn't it SPESHUL? Wasn't it WONDERFUL?" and the honest response would be, "Frankly, no. It was creepy." But you can't say that.

I thought I was the only one, until I found RfM.

My greatest personal revelation in the temple...and this was each time I went......was "Did I just get violated?" Pretty sure I was. The first time I went was totally creepy. My escort thought I was pondering the meaning of my trip only because I was so quiet the trip back home. Nope! I was wondering what the hell just happened.

I equate going to the temple like having bad sex. You have this build up of something you think is going to be great and you are told it is really good, special, etc... Then you find out how contrived it really is. What a let down.

I never felt close to any kind of spiritual being while there.