I've been dealing with this for a while now, so I apologize if this seems repetitive.

I used to be so spiritual. But TSCC took that part of me and twisted it.

Not long ago, I believed TSCC corrupted my "innocence" and received many replies about how my previous nature was based on hocus pocus bullshit.

But it's more than that.

I love life. I love each moment.

But now, anytime I get "warm fuzzies" or a damn "burning bosom" I almost feel nauseated. I shoo it away because it reminds me of the treacherous hand of TSCC.

I have an aversion to spirituality and I want it gone!

Anyone else experience this?

Once you know how the magic trick is performed you can never go back to being an amazed audience member. Once you have become the anthropologist, you can never go back to being a tribesman. You can't unlearn.

Most of the warm fuzzy moments for you probably were associated with religion. Now you know religion's magic tricks.

I think over time you will again develop a reverence and respect for the awe of the universe. Sometimes when I see a really beautiful plant or an amazing insect, I feel it. I get that warm fuzzy feeling in appreciation of being a part of it all.

Here are some things that induce "spirituality" for me now:

Dawkins' book The Greatest Show On Earth about the diversity of evolution

An email from one of my adult children thanking me for how they were raised and loved

The feeling of insignificance when an act of nature - like a tornado - occurs.

The face of a puppy.

Loving life and valuing time are a type of spirituality IMO.

Not really--I try to develop more general spirituality, to butt-out and replace the old scam lies. I like to be in awe of science, and learned, skilled people, like doctors and astronauts. I like to hear about acts of kindness and heroism. I love beautiful music and poetry. I worship nature.

Mormon-type spirituality can be very nauseating! But real-life spontaneous spirituality is uplifting and refreshing. Heartfelt spirituality makes you smile and laugh, not frown and cry.

One of my favorite cartoons was a one-frame "Dennis the Menace" drawing of Dennis and his friend playing with a litter of kittens. Dennis says, "God sure must have a sense of humor!"

Now, that's spiritual!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/03/2011 03:30AM by forestpal.

I have felt similarly. I mistrusted and pushed away that "spiritual" feeling. I've taken a different approach over the last while of just accepting I feel that way but not making decisions based on it. So, the feeling comes and goes, and I enjoy it without feeling compelled by it to *do* anything. Feeling that way has improved my mood. It doesn't have to lead directly to anything more than that.

There was a status statement on facebook the other day that my friend cut and pasted and used as her own status. She was never Mormon. The status was about God and it alluded to if you took the time to stop and read her status, it was God's providence and that God wanted you to know that whatever you had been going through would be over soon.

I get hives when I read crap like that, people speaking for God falsely. It's misleading, it's wrong, it's presumptuous, it's deceiving no matter how good the intention behind it is.

I have no tolerance for stuff like that, and I avoid all conversations, cliches, quips and anything of the like that has to deal with God, religion, bible etc. That includes people who act like a walking platitude carnival barker.

The good side is I am with forestpal. I think the world, my world is wonderful enough to be in awe of it. It was always there, like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, you just gotta look in your own back yard. Nature, your loved ones, art, music, the sunset, the sunrise, there are many many things that will take our breath away and give us goosebumps. In that we can celebrate and feel inspired.

It can be scary and lonely to have built an immunity against the religious piped pipers of this world.

But it is a better place to be.

with the "face of a puppy." There are very few things in life that have impacted me like my dogs--such unconditional love. I have a comic strip where there is a dog at the podium in heaven and he says, "You've just been spelling it backwards."

I posted recently about going to Alaska--and seeing my daughter pull up driving a Princess tour bus. I hadn't seen her for 4 months and the tears came to my eyes and a feeling of awe.

My kids haven't been that easy the past few years--one being as antimormon as possible and other being as mormon as possible,and they can't even be in the same room together where they used to be the best of friends--but the day they were born was truly the most awe-inspiring day of my life.

I believe more in spiritiuality now than I did as a mormon. I consider my feelings authentic now instead of contrived.

there is nothing wrong with a sense of well being or good feelings, as long as its impossible for someone to use them to rape or rob you with them. Hopefully you have arrived at that secure point.

Your description IMO falls more under feelings than it does under spiritual, because in its most common context as abused by religious ppl, spiritual is made to mean the same thing as "er something". It becomes linguistic filler when things cant be explained, and its less meaningful in practice in that role than "uhhhhh" even though MORmONS think its a great way to trail off into the unfathomably profound.

Lucky Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> there is nothing wrong with a sense of well being
> or good feelings, as long as its impossible for
> someone to use them to rape or rob you with them.
> Hopefully you have arrived at that secure point.
>

That is really a good point. I get to know a lot of traumatized men in my work and many, if not most of them, operate on the principle "It's not OK to be OK, because then something bad is going to happen." I felt that way about religious or spiritual feelings for most of the time since leaving Mormonism. Only recently have I felt more relaxed. The feeling just comes and goes like any other feeling. Before I felt like those feelings meant I had to behave a certain way or I had to keep them to feel OK.

Lucky Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> there is nothing wrong with a sense of well being
> or good feelings, as long as its impossible for
> someone to use them to rape or rob you with them.
> Hopefully you have arrived at that secure point.
>

I too, that what Lucky wrote is important.

Lost Mystic, I know where you are at. I have been thru that as well.
As time when by and I thought that the "spiritual" side that died when Mormonism's impact on me died, I found, even though I wasnt even trying, that another (and I would call more authentic) for of spirituality showed itself in my life.

I fought it. I didn't trust it. But it was there, and it was distinctly different from what I thought was spiritual in my LDS years.

My words of advice based on my own experience. Dont worry about what you are experiencing at the moment. It's real and it's part of the recovery and getting rid of the dead wood that is your past life.

But as time goes by, especially if there is a side of you that is legitimately drawn to more spiritual things, you will find that will pop up again but in a more mature understanding of what authentic spiritually is. (I say that because of your handle "lost mystic" gives me the sense that you are, in a way like me; ie hard-wired with a strong spiritual nature)

Dont let any one define what that is for you. THAT is where you get into problems. Letting others define what is what.

I have never been a spiritual person. I was BIC, and have never had a testimony despite "believing", or rather "accepting" the church to be true. My Myers-Briggs type is INTJ, and "feeling" things has never been a feature of my life.

I think there is room for spirituality in *other* people, but it has never been for me.

After what happened to you, it is understandable that you would reject anything associated with TSCC, including the so-called “burning of the bosom” feeling (which is not a spiritual confirmation of something as TSCC claims.)

I agree with Dagny that “loving life and valuing time are a type of spirituality.” And these are NOT associated with Mormonism!

I expect the day will come when you discover how to be spiritual in a way that is NOT connected with a man-made organization out to con people. This may take some time and there is no rush. In the meantime, go with the flow and avoid the type of false, fake spirituality which caused you so much misery!

Spirituality, in an authentic sense, is fruitful. Unlike Mormonism, which is sterile.

Here's a description of "spirituality" from Wikipedia:

"Spirituality can refer to an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality; an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.” Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop an individual's inner life; spiritual experience includes that of connectedness with a larger reality, yielding a more comprehensive self; with other individuals or the human community; with nature or the cosmos; or with the divine realm. Spirituality is often experienced as a source of inspiration or orientation in life. It can encompass belief in immaterial realities or experiences of the immanent or transcendent nature of the world."

Note that, in this sense, spirituality need not presuppose any supernatural entities. Mormonism hijacks our spiritual nature and makes it all about loyalty and obedience to the ORGANIZATION. There are many passages in the Book of Mormon that gave me "warm fuzzies." The con begins when you are told that those "warm fuzzies" are not just your natural, spiritual response to aspects of the human condition, but are secret messages to you from some hidden, transcendent being that the Mormon Church is "true."

The trick is to learn to enjoy the warm fuzzies you get while rejecting the Mormon-installed conditioning that this is somehow "proof" of something different.

We talked for about 45 minutes--well, to be fair I talked most and they politely listened. I was kind but matter-of-fact and when they asked if I had had spiritual experiences, I answered that I indeed had, including as a Mormon, and still do.

So, why I am I not in the Church? Well, those experiences are in the nature of human beings and not the property of a church, although if you belong to a religion, it may influence the form of them and what you attribute them to. Essentially, Mormons have "Mormon" experiences; Catholics, "Catholic" ones; Buddhists, "Buddhist" ones, and so on. Atheists report spiritual experiences as well.

It got a little more puzzling for them when one asked if I believe in God, then and I said I am agnostic. I simply can't tell if it was God I was experiencing or something only from my own brain, since everything is interpreted through our brains. One brought up the importance of relying on feelings, to which I repeated the problem of brains and the need to have objective confirmation as well as feelings.

I told them they are welcome back, but I don't know if they will take me up on it :-)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/02/2011 11:52PM by robertb.

From what I've experienced (not like I'm any kind of expert) those warm fuzzies are NOT spiritual or spirituality.
They're just a good feeling.
I used to cry over Hallmark commercials when I was hormonal.
That's so not spiritual.
The morg are so lame.