Although it's clear to me what a pile of BS TSCC's doctrine is, I've always been a little on the fence when it comes to Patriarchal Blessings.

Even though mine was very generic, I've known others who had very specific "blessings" that actually tied very closely to events in their lives. For example, a good friend of mine had a blessing that said to be very careful to avoid the use of stimulants. Later in his life he developed a drug problem that included crystal meth and it ultimately killed him.

Has anyone else had a patriarchal blessing that was actually relevant? Is is possible that even though TSCC is a fraud, Patriarchs really do have some sort of "connection"?

Mormon fortune telling is pure horse shiz!

Possible but not likely. (Then again, most anything is possible--fewer things are likely.)

Even a broken clock is right twice a day, brett.

With all due respect for the deceased, what if your friend had avoided stimulants? A patriarch could say this about anyone and be absolutely right (it is like an injunction to keep breathing--he stopped breathing and now he's dead, the patriarch must be right! For the most part, we should probably all avoid drugs etc.).

I am reminded of a YouTube video I saw about prayer.

If we pray and we get what we ask for--hooray!

If we pray and we don't get what we ask for--the answer was "No".

If we pray and we wait, and wait, and wait and finally we get what we asked for--the answer was "Not right now".

You can pray to anything (literally anything--a broken watch, a used condom, even your Aunt Tilly) and get the same results. Based on sheer probability some of the things you pray for will happen and others will not and some will happen at a very different time. It doesn't mean that the object of prayer was responsible in any respect.

Correlation is not causation! And correlation doesn't even imply meaningful association...

Mine was given to me by a guy who knew me pretty well. He foretold my gifts of foreign language, public speaking and that I would have few temporal needs that would go unmet.

Seeing that I spent my first 5 years living in Mexico and Spanish was my 1st play language, my father was a renowned linguist, I was active in local theater and was at the time in a community play with his wife and we both lived in an affluent neighborhood, I wasn't that impressed.

All fortune tellings is a hoax. People who want to find correlation with random predictions will.

Pure nonsense.

If my parents took me to a fortune teller as a child and told me beforehand that everything this man says is true and he never makes mistakes, and the fortune teller told me I had to be careful not to use drugs, how do you think that would affect me?

So now a seed has been planted in my subconscious mind that "not being careful" equaled "doing drugs."

Now I have to figure out what "being careful" means. This is purely subjective. I might begin to worry on a daily basis that I'm not "careful" enough. I might start to stress out. Eventually "being careful" would feel like a ton of bricks on my back that I have to lug everywhere.

Am I being careful at school? At work? In my relationships/friendships? Am I being careful with my thoughts? My weight? Athletic activities?

Ultimately the preoccupation with being careful would prove too much to handle and I would break. However, because I've now repeated to myself (consciously and unconsciously) for years that not being careful = doing drugs, what possible alternative would there be for me if I finally quit being careful?

Of course I would start doing drugs.

That's the poison of fortune telling.

"To be very careful to avoid the use of stimulants" it is an advise I would give to anyone because it will fit anyone. The statement is actually very generic... what kind of stimulants?, what kind of use?, It is highly predictable that anyone will be presented with the opportunity to try or use stimulants (coffee, high energy drinks, some fruits or vegetables, prescription and over the counter drugs) even music or video can be stimulant.
To me it prophesies or foretelling is a game of possibilities and interpretation. How likely it is for anyone to get harm by or because of the use of stimulants? very likely.

It's the biggest bunch of nonsense in TSCC. And you know how big something has to be to top THAT pile of nonsense.

My daughter had a long (7 pages typed) patriarchal blessing. She was told MANY specific things. This is really a great tactic because surely sometime in her life, things were going to happen that would seem to tie specifically into her PB. Then, of course, the church would be twoo!

She was so touched by her blessing. I just kind of rolled my eyes. Both her grandmothers cried when she called and read it to them. I don't know how many times I heard from my mother about how special DD's blessing was.

Well, about a year later, DD's best friend got her blessing. From the same patriarch. Guess what? Of course, you guessed it. Almost all the same, very specific things were in her friend's blessing. I even felt sad for my daughter because she really had taken that to heart and it had boosted her self-esteem a lot to think there were so many specific special things in store for her. She said she folded up her blessing that day and put it away and never looked at it again. She still stayed active and married in the temple. But it remained a huge red flag and led her to eventually look at other wild claims of the church and finally resign her membership.

It's a crap shoot just like any mystic or psychic reading would be. How many kids deal with addiction? Tons. If your friend hadn't, it would be because of the great warning in his PB. If he had, and was able to overcome it, it would have been because of the great warning in his PB. Since he did and wasn't able to overcome it, it's because he didn't heed the great warning in his PB. It's just another set up by a very well-oiled corporate cult machine.

It's just a job description.

After a thorough interview as well as a recomendation from your Bishop, it would be curious indeed if the blessing wasn't personally relevant sounding.

We did the whole thing- worthiness interview, get a recommend, fast and pray the day before and then after an hour long interview (get to know ya session) my wife and I got ours. I've reread mine a few times over the years and truthfully, other than being blessed to fulfill our callings and church duties, there is nothing personal in either of them that wasn't widely known or discussed in the interview.

??????

Even the most sincere posts like this confuse me.

Those who affirm or get these kind of posts, please throw a dog a bone and tell me why?

The is RfM--Patriachs are silly men doing a silly ritual for a silly Church. Why do people who take meth become addicted? Why if someone says you should stay away from addictive drugs this is insightful.

Please people, read more science....biology, astronomy, physics, anatomy. It's okay to become educated as an individual.

Belief has changed, behavior the same.

Mormons are parrots, repeating back words without thought and I guess exMormons need to decide if that is how they want to go forward. Mormons don't think for themselves, exMormons must think for themselves, don't be an exMormon parrot that reads RfM and just follows two or three of your favorite posters. What's the difference from being a Mormon following two or three of your favorite Church leaders?



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/12/2013 01:25PM by gentlestrength.

A friend of mine from childhood is now a patriarch. He babbles the blessings and his wife transcribes them, sometimes changing them.

I'm very skeptical of claims nowadays and believers can really strain reality to try and make it support their religious preconceptions.

I'd really like to read this guy's PB word for word in case he is leaving stuff out that contradicts the supposed prophesy or that he isn't misconstruing what it really says. How specific was it REALLY?

I'd also like to know his background and his relationship with the Patriarch. Did your friend have drug issues before his PB? Did he associate with "the wrong crowd" and the Patriarch and/or Bishop were possibly concerned about this? Did your friend have an episode with pain killers before his PB?

When I received my PB my former Bishop was the Patriarch. Not coincidentally my PB was long and very descriptive of myself. He mentioned me being quiet and introverted. His "prophesy" for me in the blessing was that I would serve as "a leader and in councils for men an boys" or something to that affect. He knew I was really into Boy Scouts and was the first to earn my Eagle in many years. He probably assumed I'd stay active in the organization and be a scout master or something. Well, I didn't.

I've never read mine. Since the only things out of the ordinary generic blessings, all conditional at that, were covered in the interview before, it was obvious without meaning. Besides, I didn't like the conditions. It meant that everything I was promised was only IF I did what TSCC demanded, including marriage, etc., etc. Since I was already married with quite a few children, in my profession, etc., I felt it of no importance and I felt a bit hoodwinked.

I think when someone is told something, like a fortune, they think about it enough to make it happen. Its a mind game. If someone tells you not to look down when you are on a tall building or you'll fall, all you will be thinking about while you're on that building is trying not to look down so you dont fall. If you look down and end up falling, were they right or did they just make you think about it enough to make it happen?

sorry thats a bad example, but I think they put things in peoples heads. Most people who get a PB are doing it because they believe in them. They are going to follow it because they think its whats supposed to happen..

I was dating a guy I really cared about and wanted to marry, he couldnt take me to the temple like my PB told me my husband would. So I dumped him. I met my husband months later and I became inactive and still didnt get married in the temple. Its a choice you make. But I still regret sometimes not marrying the other guy over a fake piece of fortune telling.

'Even a broken clock is right twice a day'


my kid got a lengthy interview before he got the blessing

wow- how'd he know all that?

This was a completely joke I did a week or so ago. People on this board posted their name and I choose a completely random quote from a serial killer.

One of the first posters on the thread (outcast) said I hit close to home with 2 posts in a row.

If I can randomly take 2 quotes from serial killers and hit a bullseye I'm not impressed with a "cold read":

http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,815592,815592

My patriarchal blessing told me, "lean not unto your own understanding but trust the Lord and he shall direct your paths". So, I took that advice and left the LDS church when I felt the Holy Ghost tell me to be "born-again". Thanks patriarchal blessing!

Mine was generic bullshit, and it got a disclaimer saying that if I wasn't righteous it doesn't apply

I hate to burst your bubble, but one of my callings was actually transcribing Patriarchal Blessings. They're pretty much all the same. I think that was actually my first cog-dis moment. We were asked a while ago what our first one was and I couldn't think of it. That's probably it.

Anyway, if the Patriarch knows a little something about you, you might get a little personal note in there. But otherwise, from a particular Patriarch, they're pretty much all the same.

I was told that I'd marry in the temple. Nope, never happened. I didn't resign until I was in my 50s, but they'll still try to say, "Well you would have, if you hadn't left." Or, "Maybe it meant in the Millenium."

Or all the people who were told that they'd live to see the Second Coming, who have now passed on.

They're all B.S.

Oh, and about the substance abuse thing. You'd have to know how many people were told the same thing and heeded the warning. There's bound to be some who get caught up in drugs anyway.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/12/2013 08:08PM by Greyfort.